





222.13 SchR \W3S 0% 
THE AVERA 


Bible Collection. 


Cv 


Library of Trinity College, 
DURHAM, N.C 


WAN 2 1 1919 


Received 





THE NEW-CENTURY BIBLE 





ae 


Now Complete ; 
rs 
GENESIS, by the Rev. Prof. W. H. Bennett, Litt.D., D.D. ee 


EXODUS, by the Rev. Prof. W. H. BENNETT, ‘Litt.D... D.D. 
LEVITICU AND NUMBERS, by the Rev. Prof, A. R. S. Keawepy, M.A, 


DEUTRONOMY AnD JOSHUA, by the Rey. Prof, H. WHEELER 
Rosinson, M.A. 

UDGLES Aanp RUTH, x the Rev. Principal G. W. THatcuer, M.A., B.D. 
AnD II SAMUEL, by 1¢ Rev. Prof. A. R. S. KEnnepy, MLA., DD. 
I anp If KINGS, by the ys Principal SkinsER, D.D. - 
I AnD II CHRONT LES, by the Rev. W. HARVEY-JELLIE. M.A., B.D. 
age? Od aegis AnD ESTHER, by the Rey. 4 T. Wirtox DAviEs, 
OB, by Prof. ‘A. S. Peake, M.A., 

SAL MIS (Vol. I)I To LXXIl, » by pi Kz Prof. Davison, M.A., D.D. 
vasa Wie. Cs II) a To END, by the Rev. Prof. T. Witron DAviEs, 


Ph. 
PROVERES. DS CCLESIASTES Ann SONG OF SOLOMON, by the 
Ae So ee ths M.A °F Owns C, Wi 

~ the Rev. Pro! WEN HITE: WD. 
ISAIAH XL-LX VE ey the Rey. Prof. OWEN C. WHITEHOUSE, M.A., D.D. 
EREMIAH (Vol. I Prof. A. S. PEAKE, M.A., 
ED Vol hy” AND LAMENTATIONS, by Prof. A. =. PEsER, 


EZEKIEL by the Rev. Prof. W. F. Lorruouse, M.A. 

DANIEL, by the Rey. Prof. R. H. CHARLES, D.D. 

MINOR PROPHETS: Hosea, ee Amos, OBADIAH, Jowan, MICAH, by 
the Rev. R. F, Horton, M. K., D.D. 

MINOR PROPHETS: NAnUM, HABAKKUK, ZEPHANIAH, HAGGAI, 
ZECHARIAH, MALACHI, by the Rev. Canon DRIVER, Litt.D., D.D. 


MATTHEW, by the Rev. Prof. W. F. SLATER, M.A. 

MARK, by the fate Principal SALMonD, D.D. 

LUKE, by Principal W. F. ADENEY, M.A., D.D. 

JOHN, by the Rev. J. A. MceCrymont, D.D. 

ACTS, es the Rev. Prof. J. VERNON BARTLET, M.A., D.D. 

ROMANS, by the Rev. Principal A. E, GAr VIE, M. x. he: 

I AND IT CORINTHIANS, by Prof. J. MAsstr, M.A., 

EPHESIANS, COLOSSIANS, PHILEMON, PHILIPPIANS, by the 
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M.A., D.D. 
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HEBREWS, by Prof. A. S, PEAKF, M.A., D.D. 
THE GENERAL EPISTLES, by the Rev. Prof. W. H. BENNETT, Litt.D., 


D.D. 
REVELATION, by the Rev. Prof. C. ANpERson Scot7, M.A., B.D 


THE NEW-CENTURY BIBLE 


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| The Mew-Century Bible 


GENERAL EpitTor: 
Principat WatLTER F. Apeney, M.A., D.D. 





Leviticus and Wumbers 


INTRODUCTION 
REVISED VERSION WITH NOTES 
INDEX AND MAP 


EDITED BY THE 


REV. A. R. S. KENNEDY, M.A., D.D. 
PROFESSOR OF HEBREW AND SEMITIC LANGUAGES IN THE 
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 


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NEW YORK: HENRY FROWDE 
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, AMERICAN BRANCH 
EDINBURGH: T. C. & E. C. JACK 





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3 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 
< 
A. Intropuction 10 Leviticus anD NuMBERS: 


I, The Titles of the Books ; 
If. Arrangement and Contents of the Books . 
III, The Modern View of the Pentateuch 


= IV. JE in the Book of Numbers A A 

“™ = WV. The History of Israel's Theocratic Institu- . 

3 tions (P®) 3 ; ? ; : > 

__ VI. The Holiness Code (H or P') : : f 

= VII. Supplementary Codes (Pt) and Later Addi- 
fi tions (P*) 


List of the Literary Symbols and Abbreviations 


8B. Leviticus: Texr of THe RevisED VERSION, WITH 
ANNOTATIONS 


C. Numpers: Text or THE ReviseD VERSION, WITH 
ANNOTATIONS 


AvpiITIoNnAL Notes: 
A. The Day of Atonement . a “ % : - 


B. Bibliography . . . a 
C. On the Map of the Bina Perithsils : 5 5 
Git) a, Ge aa 5 : ; : : ° 5 
MAP 


Sinai Peninsula and Canaan 2 * 3 . | at front 





THE BOOKS OF 
LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


INTRODUCTION 


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THE BOOKS OF 
LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


INTRODUCTION 


I. THE TITLES OF THE BOOKS. 


‘THE third Book of Moses, commonly (so R. V.) called” 
Leviticus, the fourth Book of Moses, commonly called 
Numbers ’—by these titles the reader is reminded that the 
two books in question are not independent literary pro- 
ductions, but the third and fourth sections of a larger 
whole, variously named ‘the Torah’ (i.e. ‘ direction,’ 
‘instruction,’ then ‘ law’), ‘ the five’ Books of Moses,’ and 
‘the Pentateuch.’ The last of these, the name now 
generally adopted, is in origin a Greek term signifying 
the ‘five-volume’ book, and has reference to the separate 
rolls on which the five sections of the Torah. were in- 
scribed. This application of the term Pentateuch goes 
back to at least the second century of our era; the 
corresponding Latin form, Pentateuchus (scil. liber), is 
" first found in the works of Irenaeus. 

In our Hebrew Bibles the individual books of the Torah 
bear titles consisting of one or more,of the opening words 
of each book. On the other hand the names by which 
they have been known in the Christian Church from the 
first are descriptive of the contents, in whole or in part, 
of the several books. They belonged originally to the 
Septuagint (LXX), the name given to the translation of the 
Torah which was made for the use of the Greek-speaking 
Jews of Alexandria about the middle of the third century 
B.C. From the LXX they passed into the Vulgate, the 
Latin Bible of the Western Church, from which they 
passed in turn into our English Bibles (Genesis, Exodus, 


B 2 


4 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


&c.). The titles of the two books commented on in the 
following pages demand, however, a fuller explanation. 

The title of Leueztikon, which ‘the third Book of Moses’ 
bears in the Septuagint, appears in the Vulgate in its 
Latin form Leviticus (scil. liber), both signifying ‘the 
Levitical book.’ The Greek adjective is once used, and 
in the same sense, in the New Testament by the author of 
the Epistle to the Hebrews, who refers to the priesthood 
of Aaron as ‘ the Levitical priesthood’ (vii. 11). Leviticus, 
therefore, is the section of the Torah which deals with the 
priests and their duties, not, as one might hastily infer, 
with the subordinate caste of the hierarchy to whom the 
term Levites is confined in certain parts of the Pentateuch 
(see p. 199 f. below). As a matter of fact there is but a 
single mention of the ‘ Levites’—and that from a late 
source—in the whole of Leviticus (xxv. 32ff.). Leviticus, 
in short, is so named because it contains ‘ the law of the 
priests,’ the not inappropriate title which it bears i bi | more 
than one passage of the Mishna. 

As regards the title of the Book of Numbers, it is inter- 
esting to note that while the titles of the other four books 
of the Pentateuch were taken over from the Septuagint 
with only such changes as were necessary to give them 
Latin terminations, the Greek title (Avithmoi) of this 
book was ¢rans/ated, and became umeré in the Vulgate, 
in English, Numbers. This is practically identical with 
a title also found in the Mishna, ‘the book of the 
mustered’ or ‘numbered,’ both titles having reference to 
the ‘numbering’ or census of the Hebrew tribes com- 
manded and carried out in the opening chapters of the 
book (see Num. i-iii and cf. xxvi, a second census), 


II, ARRANGEMENT AND CONTENTS OF THE BOOKS. 


It will be convenient at this point to give a conspectus 
of the Books of Leviticus and Numbers showing the main 
divisions and subdivisions adopted in this volume before 


INTRODUCTION 5 


proceeding to examine in greater detail the nature and 
history of their contents. 


LEVITICUS. 
Pirst Division. CHapters I—VII. 
LAWS RELATING To SACRIFICE. 
A. i—vi. 7. The ritual of the five principal offerings— 
addressed to the community as a whole. 
{@)i. The ritual of the burnt-offering. 
(5) it. = e meal-offering. 
(©) iii. +. aa peace-offering. 
(@) iv. r—v. 13. The ritual of the sin-offering. 
(€) v. 14—vi. 7. The law of the guilt-offering. 


B. vi. 8—vii. 38. Supplementary directions for the ritual 
of sacrifice—addressed to the priests. 


(With one exception [see p. 60] the sections follow 
the.same order as those of A.) 


Second Division. Cuaprrers VIII—X. 


TuE ConsEcRATION AND INSTALLATION OF THE 
Aaronic PriesTHoop. 
(@) viii. Consecration of Aaron and his sons. 
(6) ix. Aaron and his sons enter upon their office. 
(¢) x. Thedeath of Nadab and Abihu, with sundry regula- 
tions for the priests. 


Third Division. CHapters XI—XVI. 


LAws RELATING TO UNCLEANNESS AND PURIFICATION, INCLUDING 
THE Speciat Rites of THE Day oF ATONEMENT (XVI). 
(a) xi. Laws relating chiefly to clean and unclean animals. 
(6) xii. The law ofthe purification of women after child-birth. 
(c) xiii, xiv. Laws concerning leprosy and the necessary 

purifications. 
(d) xv. Laws concerning the uncleanness of issues. 
(e) xvi. The Day of Atonement. 


6 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


Fourth Division. Cxuarrers XVII—XXVI_ 
Tue Ho .iness Cope, 
(a) xvii. Laws relating to sacrifice and kindred topics. 
(6) xviii—xx. Laws relating chiefly to social morality. 
(c) xxi, xxii. ‘Laws relating to priesthood and sacrifice. 
(d) xxiii—xxv. The cycle of sacred seasons and other 
matters. : 
(e) xxvi. The close of the Holiness Code in the form ofa 
hortatory address. 


Appendix, Cuaprer XXVII. 
On THE COMMUTATION OF VoTIVE OFFERINGS AND TITHES. 


NUMBERS. 
Pirst Division. Cuapters I—X, to. 
Laws AND REGULATIONS GIVEN AT SINAL 

(a) i, ii. The first census and the disposition of the camp. 
(5) iii, iv. The Levites and their duties, 
(¢) v, vi. Various laws and regulations, including the ordeal 

of jealousy and the law of the Nazirite. 
(d) vii. The offerings of the secular heads of the tribes, 
(e) viii. The dedication of the Levites. 
(/) ix. 1—x. 10. A supplementary Passover law and other 

matters. 


Second Division. Cuaprers X. 11—XX. 13. 
TRADITIONS OF THE WILDERNESS PERIOD, WITH 
ACCOMPANYING LEGISLATION. 
(a) x. t1--xii. 16. From Sinai to Kadesh. 
(4) xiii, xiv. The mission of the spies. 
(c)xv. A group of laws relating chiefly to ritual. 
(d) xvi—xviii. The mutiny of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, 
and the prerogatives and dues of the priests and Levites. 
(e) xix. The Red Heifer, or the ritual of purification from 
uncleanness caused by contact with the dead. 
(f) xx. 1-13. Death of Miriam at Kadesh. The ‘waters 
of strife,’ and exclusion. of Moses and Aaron from the 
land of promise. 


INTRODUCTION 7 


Third Division. CHaprers XX. 14—XXXVI. 13. 
From KabEsH To THE PLaINsS oF Moas. 

(4) xx. 14—xxi. 35. The Hebrews, refused a passage 
through Edom, make a long detour and take possession 
of the country east of the Jordan. 

(6) xxiti—xxiv. Balak and Balaam. 

(¢) xxv—xxvii. A miscellaneous section (see p. 334). 

(@) xxviii, xxix. A table of the publicofferings for the stated 
festivals. 

(¢) xxx. The validity of women’s vows. 

(f) xxxi. Aholy war against Midian, and legislation based 
thereon. 

(g) xxxii. The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and (part of) Ma- 
nasseh are allotted territory east of the Jordan. 

(A) xxxili. 1-49. An annotated itinerary of the route from 
Egypt to the Jordan. 

(@) xxxiii. 507—xxxvi. 13. A group of laws having reference 
to the impending occupation of Canaan. 


From the foregoing synopsis it will be seen that in the 
Books of Leviticus and Numbers the historical element is 
completely overshadowed by the legal, since the whole of 
Levitictis and three-fourths, or more, of Numbers~betony 
ie que" Gr Giller oF Mis collections of priestly lawe and 
precedents which it has become usual to group under the 
comprehensive title of the Priests’ Code (symbol P, see 
below, pp. 20-31). 

The Book of Exodus, it will be remembered, closes with 
the erection of the Tabernacle— properly ‘the Dwelling’ 
(of Yahweh)—and its consecration by the presence within 
it and over it of the Divine Glory. At the beginning of 
Leviticus, therefore, we should have expected to find an 
account of the solemn inauguration of the Tabernacle 
worship. But for this we have to wait till ch. ix, and in its 
place we find a manual of sacrifice (i-vii): in which the 
chief varieties of altar-offerings are enumerated, and the 
ritual appropriate to each is prescribed. These chapters 
of Leviticus must have had a history of their own before 


- 


8 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


being inserted in the place which they now occupy (see sect. 
vii, and more fully in the introductory note, p. 37). Here, 
however, let us note that while chapters i-v are said to 
have been revealed to Moses ‘ out of the tent of meeting’ 
(i. 1), the remainder of the section is said to have been 
received by the Hebrew lawgiver ‘in Mount Sinai’ (see 
note on vii. 37 f.). 

The next section (viii-x) consists of three closely related 
chapters, which record the consecration by Moses of 
Aaron and his four sons as the priests of the wilderness 
sanctuary, in accordance with the Divine instructions 
already given in Exod. xxix. In Lev. x. 1of, it is stated 
that one of the most important, as it was undoubtedly 
one of the oldest, duties of the priest is to ‘put difference 
between the holy and the common, and between the 
unclean and the clean.’ This reference to the priest as 
the arbiter in cases of uncleanness explains the position 
of Lev. xi-xv, a section of the greatest importance devoted 
to laws and regulations relating to uncleanness in its 
most varied forms (see the synopsis above), with the 
requisite rites of purification. From these the great 
expiation rite of the Day of Atonement, which occupies 
ch. xvi, cannot be separated, since it represents the 
culmination and crown of the purification-rites of the 
old covenant. 

The ten chapters, Lev. xvii-xxvi, have long been 
recognized as possessing certain characteristics which 
mark them off from the rest of the Pentateuch legislation, 
and entitle them to be regarded as forming a separate 
collection of laws, on which the name of the Holiness 
Code (symbol H) is now universally bestowed. In chs. 
xvili-xx of this Code we have the only examples of moral 
precepts and social, as opposed to ceremonial, legislation 
contained in the Book of Leviticus. The difficult problem 
of the history and date of the Holiness Code falls to be 
discussed at a later stage (see sect. vi). _According to 
the present colophon (xxvi. 46), ‘the statutes and judge- 


INTRODUCTION 9 


ments and laws’ of this section were given, like the 
contents of vi. 8—vii. 38, ‘to the children of Israel in 
Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.’ 

According to the scheme of chronology adopted by the 
compiler or compilers of the Pentateuch, the giving of 
the laws now embodied in Leviticus must be assigned to the 
first month of the second year, reckoning from the Exodus 
(see Exod. xl. 1, 17; Num.i.1). The Israelites, however, 
are not yet ready to leave the mount of lawgiving, for the 
organization of the theocratic community and the arrange- 
ments for the ordered worship of the Deity who has now 
condescended to dwell among them are still incomplete. 
Accordingly the first division of the Book of Numbers 
opens with the ‘numbering’ of the twelve secular tribes, 
and of the priestly tribe of Levi, as a preliminary to the 
necessary organization. On this follows the elaborate 
plan of the wilderness camp, a ‘city of God’ in the desert 
of Sinai; which the author has made the vehicle for the 
inculcation of spiritual truths regarding God’s perfection 
and man’s sinfulness (see below, p.194f.). The organiza- 
tion of the sanctuary and its worship is also completed 
by the setting apart of the tribe of Levi to an office 
intended to be one of great dignity and honour, although 
concerned only with the menial duties of the Tabernacle 
and its service. 

With these topics, which occupy Num. i-iv and viii, 
have’ been incorporated various laws and regulations ; 
some of these, such as the ordeal of jealousy in ch. v and 
the law of the Nazirite in ch. vi, are of special interest as 
representing beliefs and practices of a remote antiquity, 
which are here taken over and invested with a new signi- 
ficance by the later exponents of Hebrew religion and law. 

In the arrangement of the contents of Numbers given 
above, and adopted in the body of the commentary, a new 
division is held to begin at x. 11 with the signal to leave 
Mount Sinai and to enter upon the second. stage of the 
journey of the Hebrew tribes to the land of Canaan. In 


10 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


this division we find almost all that the later historians 
have seen fit to hand down—many would say all that the 
popular tradition of their day had preserved—regarding 
the long period of the desert wanderings. The surprising 
meagreness of the details recorded must strike every 
student of Numbers. Here also we meet for the first 
time, since Exod. xxxiv, with extracts from the older Pen- 
tateuch sources, J and E (see below, pp. 16ff.). These ex- 
tracts contain divergent traditions regarding the guidance 
of the Hebrew tribes on their desert march to Kadesh, 
followed by others which seem to duplicate the stories of 
the manna and the quails already given in Exodus. Of 
the incidents located at Kadesh by the early traditions the 
most important, from the historian’s point of view, is 
the mission of the spies in chs. xiii, xiv. Here, it may be 
confidently asserted, we have to do with a genuine his- 
torical tradition, for all modern investigators are agreed 
that Kadesh—the modern ‘Ain Kadis (see note on Num. 
xiii. 26)—played an important part, more important indeed 
than the present fragmentary condition of the sources at 
first sight suggests, in the history of the period with which 
we are now dealing (see thenotes 7# oc.). From Kadesh 
it was to be expected that an attempt would be made to 
enter Canaan by one or other of the routes through the 
Negeb or South-landto Hebron. Of the failure of one or 
more of such attempts we have an echo in the traditions in 
question. Kadesh is also the scene of an important in- 
cident—whose precise nature it is now difficult to grasp (see 
notes on Num.xx. 1-13)—by which Hebrewtradition sought 
to explain the exclusion of Mosesand Aaron from the land 
of promise. May 
With these historical traditions is combined a Geinahel- 
able amount of matter drawn from priestly sources. Thus 
the traditions relating to certain originally distinct mutinies 
against the secular leadership of Moses and against the 
privileged position of the tribe of Levi, now joined to 
form one composite narrative (sce pp. 278 ff.), afford an 


INTRODUCTION 11 


opportunity for the definite regulation of the prerogatives 
and dues of priests and Levites (Num. xvi-xviii). At this 
point there has also been inserted a chapter (xix) con- 
taining directions for the preparation of a special cathartic, 
or medium of purification, from the ashes of a cow, the 
so-called ‘red heifer,’ and presenting several features of 
interest to the student of the rites of purification. 

Just as the second division of Numbers has been held 
to begin with the departure of the Israelites from Sinai, 
so the preparation for the departure from Kadesh (xx. 
14 ff.) forms an appropriate opening for the third division 
(xx. 14-xxxvi). Here again the legislative matter greatly 
exceeds the historical. The latter, indeed, is almost en- 
tirely confined tothe first section (xx. 1 4=xxi. 35), which gives 
asummary account of the long detour necessary to‘ compass 
the land of Edom,’ followed by an equally brief account of 
the conquest of the territory lying to the east of the Jordan. 
On this follows the section containing the familiar episode 
of Balaam (xxii-xxiv). Invirtueof itsliterary meritsandthe 
mystery attaching to the personality and character of its 
chief actor, and from the nature of its contents generally, 
this section is probably regarded by most studentsof Scrip- 
ture as the most interesting in the Book of Numbers. 

The last twelve chapters, from xxv. 6 onwards, consist 
of laws and precedents of the most varied character, but 
all bearing the unmistakable stamp of the priestly school 
of legislators. The greater part, as will be shown ina later 
section, must be of a date subsequent to that of the main 
body of the Priests’ Code. ‘The most important section is 
that dealing with the additional offerings prescribed for 
the great festivals of the ecclesiastical year (xxviii, xxix). 
Here the student will’ find valuable material for the 
‘history of the development of the Temple ritual in the 
post-exilic period. 


12 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


III. THE MODERN VIEW OF THE PENTATEUCH. 


The two books whose contents have been summarized 
in the preceding section form, as has been said, continuous 
portions of the first of the three main divisions of the 
Hebrew Scriptures, variously named the Torah, ‘the Law’ 
(so repeatedly in the New Testament, Matt, xii. 5; Lukeii. 
23; John i. 45, &c.), the Pentateuch. As the two former 
designations lead us to expect, the Pentateuch is found to 
consist of four books or volumes mainly composed of law 
—one, Leviticus, is entirely so composed—set in a frame- 
work of history, with a fifth volume, the Book of Genesis, 
prefixed as an historical introduction to the other four. 
Now the legislation of the Pentateuch is consistently re- 
presented as given for a special purpose ; its aim, stated in 
general terms, is to raise up a holy people for Yahweh, the 
covenant God of Israel, and to keep this people distinct 
from the nations around them. The history, into which 
the legislation is now fitted as a jewel in its setting, tells 
of Yahweh’s choice of Israel to be His own special and 

‘peculiar’ people. Thus history and legislation are found 
to blend into a harmonious whole, giving to the books of 
the Pentateuch an unmistakable unity of thought and 
purpose. Strictly speaking, one ought to include in this 
unity the Book of Joshua, which is related to the preceding 
books as fulfilment is related to promise. Hence has 
grown up the modern practice of grouping together the 
first six Books of the Old Testament under the title Hexa- 
teuch (the ‘six-volume ’ book). 

But unity after all isa relative term. A general unity 
of plan and purpose may be, and often is, found ina work 
made up of contributions by several authors agreeing in 
their general attitude to the subject under discussion, while 
differing from each other in their way of presenting it, and 
in the emphasis which they lay on its different parts. 
Such a work, according to the modern view, zs the Penta- 
teuch. The Christian Church, as every one knows, took 


INTRODUCTION 13 


over from the Jewish Church of the first century the 
books of its sacred Canon, the only ‘sacred writings’ 
(2 Tim. iii. 15 R.V.) known to the first generation of 
Christians. Along with these Scriptures of the Old Tes- 
tament came the then generally accepted beliefs regarding 
their authorship anddate. Ofthese none was more surely 
believed than the already venerable tradition that the 
five books of the Torah were from the pen of the Hebrew 
lawgiver, Moses. 

Equally familiar to every student of the Century Bible 
is the fact that, as the result of two centuries of patient 
_ research, this tradition of the Mosaic authorship is’ now 
rejected by the vast majority of Old Testament scholars. 
The Pentateuch, it is now maintained, is neither the work 
of a single author, nor even the product ofa single age, 
but a compilation from a number of older and originally 
independent works, separated from each other in date by 
several centuries. It does not fall within the scope of this 
Introduction, which is concerned mainly with the Books 
of Leviticus and Numbers, to set forth in detail the grounds 
on which the modern view of the origin and literary his- 
tory of the Pentateuch is based?. It must suffice to say, 
in the most general terms, that the Mosaic authorship of 
the books of the Pentateuch can no longer be upheld in 
the face of the evidence as to their origin and history 


1 The literature of Pentateuch criticism is already enormous. 
The average student will find all he needs in the standard 
English work on the subject, The Hexateuch. .. arranged 
in its constituent Documents .. . with Introduction, Notes, &c., 
by J. Estlin Carpenter, M.A., and G. Harford-Battersby, M.A., 
in two vols., 1900 (frequently referred in the present volume as 
‘C-H. Hex.’). A full and impartial summary of the evidence 
is also given in Driver’s classical Introduction to the Literature 
- of the Old Testament, now in its eighth edition (1909). See 
further the critical works of Wellhausen, Holzinger, Addis, and 
others named below in the Bibliography (p. 391), the Introduc- 
tions to the larger Commentaries there cited, and those to the 


volumes on Genesis, Exodus, and Deuteronomy in the present 
series, 


14 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


Surnished by the books themselves. No tradition, however 

venerable, as to so complex a literary product as the Penta- 
teuch on closer inspection has proved to be having pro- 
ceeded from a single mind and a single pen, can be allowed 
to outweigh the overwhelming evidence from every part of 
the work that, notwithstanding its general unity of design, 
there is in it a remarkable diversity both of literary style 
and of religious development. Such diversity points, 
beyond the possibility of doubt, to a variety of authors 
belonging to widely separated epochs of Israel’s political, 
social, and religious history. 

Still keeping to general results and avoiding all details— _ 
as to’which there still is, and from the nature of the case 
always will be, much diversity of opinion—let us attempt 
to set down as briefly as possible the several documents 
which modern literary criticism claims to have discovered 
in the Pentateuch ; this much at least is necessary for the 
understanding of the results of the analysis indicated in 
the present volume. The main documents are three in 
number, although, as will appear in due course, Bu at 
least of these are themselves composite. 

(1) D. As a ‘document’ apart stands the Book of 
Deuteronomy (symbol D). The kernel of this book, to which 
the symbol D strictly belongs, and as to the extent of which 
there is some difference of opinion, is to be identified with 
the book of the Law discovered in the Temple in the 
eighteenth year of Josiah (622 B.c.). It formed the basis 
of the religious reform undertaken by the latter as re- 
corded in 2 Kings xxii—xxiii. 

(z) P. The rest of the Pentateuch is made up of two 
distinct elements, which belong to two literary sources 
differing very markedly from each other in vocabulary and 
style. From the still wider divergence in their dominant 
interests these sources have been named respectively the 
Priestly and the Prophetic Document. The former, also 
frequently styled the Priests’ Code (symbol P), has proved 
on closer examination to be anything but a homogeneous 


INTRODUCTION 15 


work. As will be shown more fully in subsequent sections 
of this Introduction, P must have taken shape gradually, 
like the Pentateuch itself, through the accretion round 
a central nucleus of elements which, while united by a 
community of interest and .all emanating from priestly 
circles, have each an individuality and history of their own. 
Inasmuch as the nucleus referred to has been proved to be 
the fundamental document—in German the Grundschrift 
—or groundwork of the completed Pentateuch, it is fre- 
quently denoted by the symbol P8. Its date is probably 
circa 500 B.C., in the early post-exilic period (see p. 24). 

(3) JE. The other main source, as has been said, is 
known as the Prophetic Document from the lofty ethical 
and religious spirit pervading it, by which it is connected 
with the teaching of the early prophets of Israel. It is 
not, however, a homogeneous historical work from a single 
pen but is composed of two separate strands, representing - 
two originally independent but kindred narratives. These 
narratives have been so closely interwoven by their editor 
or redactor (RJ°), that the analysis is in many places difficult 
and in some impossible (see the following section). The 
conventional symbols for the separate documents, J and E, 
are best understood as reflecting the origin of the former 
in Judah, and of the latter in Ephraim or North Israel. 
Of the two J is regarded by the majority of critics as the 
older, as dating probably from the earlier half of the ninth 
century (900-850 B.C.), while E is usually assigned to the 
eighth century (ci7ca 800-750 B.C.). 

From the three main documents above enumerated, the 
Pentateuch, according to the dominant hypothesis, was 
compiled by three successive stages as follows :— 

(3) The compilation of a graphic history of the Hebrew 
origins to the conquest of Canaan from the older histones 
narratives J and E, circa 650 B.C. 

(2) The union of JE with the Deuteronomic law-book 
(D), probably during the Babylonian exile, to form JED. 

(3) The amalgamation of the last-named work with the 


16 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


main body of the Priests’ Code, not later than A. D. 400. 
Apart from not inconsiderable additions by later priestly 
hands (see below, sect. vii), ‘he result is Wrens 1 our 
Pentateuch. 

This summary exposition. of the modern view of the 
Pentateuch may fitly close with a pregnant quotation from 
the standard work to which the student has been already 
referred. ‘On what grounds,’ ask the learned authors of 
the Oxford Hexateuch, ‘does it [the modern view] rest?’ 
The answer, they rightly say, is twofold. It rests ‘(1) on 
a comparison of the documents with each other, and (2) on 
a comparison of the documents: with history. The first 
yields the order, JE, D, and P; the second leads to the 
negative result that D was unknown before the seventh 
century, and P not in existence in its present form before 
the exile; while positively it connects D with a promul- 
~ gation of sacred law under Josiah in 622, and P with 
a similar Son by Ezra, the date commonly as- 
signed being 444 B.C.’ (C-H. Hex. i. 69) = 


IV. JE IN THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. § 


According, therefore, to the modern dating of the literary 
sources of the Pentateuch, the oldest portions are those 
derived from the prophetic narrative JE. But no trace 
of this source is found in Leviticus, and in Numbers the 
material derived from it does not exceed one-fourth of the 
whole. The purpose of the combined narrative,'as of 
its two constituent elements, is to set forth the history of 
the origins of the Hebrew nation, and in connexion there- 
with to recall the fundamental fact of the historical religion 
of Israel, the solemn covenant between Yahweh and Israel 
at Sinai, and to enforce the moral and religious obligations 
incumbent on the people of God. Thus the lives of the 
patriarchs and of Moses illustrate the lofty ideals of life 
and conduct common to the two prophetic sources. In 
these we have ‘ prophecy teaching by example.’ In con- 
trast to P, whose interest is centred in Israel’s religious 


INTRODUCTION 14 


institutions and ritual laws and precedents, the dominant 
interest of JE is historical, although the legal element is 
not entirely excluded (Exod. xx-xxiii, xxxiv). Beginning 
with the creation of man (Gen. ii. 4? ff.), the prophetic 
history probably closed with the conquest of the land of 
promise and the subsequent death of Joshua, although 
some recent authorities find its separate strands repre- 
sented in the books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings. 

- The method adopted by the compiler, or compilers, of 
the Pentateuch in. fitting the material of JE into the his- 
torical framework furnished by the Priests’ Code is twofold. 
In some parts passages from JE are placed alongside of . 
those from P. Thus in Gen. i-ii the creation-story of P 
(i, I-ii. 42) is followed immediately by J’s; similarly in 
Num. xx. 14-21 the earlier account of the march from 
Kadesh (also from J) is followed by the later parallel 
from),P, xx..22-29. In other parts, where the prophetic 
and priestly sources have a good deal in common, the 
compiler’s method is to interweave their data into a new 
composite narrative. Of the latter method the classical 
illustration is the present narrative of the Flood in Gen. vi- 
viii (see Cert. Bible in loc.). Another excellent illustration 
is: afforded by the story of the spies in Num. xiii—xiv (cf. 
ch, xvi, where JE is interwoven with a double strand of P). 

‘Owing to the close affinity’in style and standpoint be- 
tween the Judaean (J) and Ephraimite (E) sources, a 
satisfactory analysis of the present’ narrative cannot in 
many cases be carried through., In several of the JE 
passages in Numbers, accordingly, no attempt has been 
made in the present volume to indicate the separate strands. 
This has been done only where there is practical unanimity 
among critical scholars that certain well-marked charac- 
teristics of the respective sources, J and E, are unmistak- 
ably.present. Thus, Num. x. 29-32, where JE reappears 
for the first time since Exod. xxxiv, is unanimously assigned 
to J on the ground that elsewhere in this source Moses’ 
father-in-law bears, the name Hobab, while Jethro is 


Cc 


18 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


confined to E, to which accordingly the following verses, 
x. 33-36, with their divergent repneeeeeanees of the ark as 
guide, must be assigned. 

A more important clue to extracts from the Ephraimite 
source is its well-known representation of the tent of meet- 
ing as situated ‘ without the camp, afar off from the camp’ 
(Exod. xxxiii.7; cf. the note on Num. xi. 16f.). This serves 
to secure xi. 1-3, 16 f., 24>-30 for E. Again, dreams and 
visions as media of divine revelation, and a marked empha- 
sis on the prophetic element in Israel’s history and on the 
prophetic ideal of life, are acknowledged to be prominent 
characteristics of E. To this source, accordingly, is unanim- 
ously assigned the important twelfth chapter of Numbers 
(see the introductory remarks thereto, p. 254f.). In these 
and other passages of the text where the analysis is indicated 
the grounds will be found briefly stated in the notes. 

The largest continuous extract from JE is that contain- 
ing the familiar episode of Balak, king of Moab, atid his 
dealings with Balaam, the mysterious magician and seer 
‘from the mountains of the East’ (Num. xxii-xxiv). 
These chapters are an excellent illustration of the skill 
with which the editor of the prophetic history (Rie) has 
succeeded in compiling from his sources a narrative of sur- 
passing interest and of remarkable, though not complete, 
homogeneity (see p. 316, where attention is called to the 
need of discriminating between the data of the several 
sources—for P is also represented—in any attempt to 
sketch the character of this elusive personality, who 
appears now as a wicked sorcerer, now as an inspired 
prophet of the Most High). Only one passage of Numbers 
is assigned to a later stratum of JE, viz. xiv. 11-24 (JE®). 

Peculiar interest attaches to the poetical pieces which 
form a special feature of the JE, and more particularly of 
the E, sections of Numbers. Of these three are found in 
ch. xxi alone (see verses 14f., 17 f. the ‘Song of the Well,’ 
27-30,—all probably from E). Four are oracular utter- 
ances ascribed to Balaam (xxiii. 7-10, 18-24, from E; xxiv. 


INTRODUCTION 19 


3-9, 15-19, from J), together with the three shorter oracles 
of later date (xxiv. 20, 21 f., 23f.). To these have to be 
added the couple of early tristichs addressed to the ark 
(x. 35 f. E), and the short poem on Moses’ pre-eminence 
as a prophet in xii. 6-8 (E). 

In one respect the most suggestive of the poems in this 
list is the tantalizing fragment cited in xxi. 14 f. Its 
suggestiveness lies in the fact that the Ephraimite his- 
torian extracted it from a national collection of songs 
which bore the interesting title, the ‘ Book of Yahweh’s 
Battles’ (see the notes zz Zoc.). It is probably the same 
historian who, in Josh. x. 12 f., quotes another snatch from 
a similar collection known as the ‘ Book of Yashar,’ from 
which other important extracts are given in 2 Sam. i. 
19-27, and in the Greek text of 1 Kings viii. 12 f. 

The contents of the ancient fragment associated with 
the ark (x. 35 f.) suggest that it too may have stood 
originally in the ‘ Book of Yahweh’s Battles,’ as may also 
have been the case with the ‘Song of the Well? (xxi. 17 f.). 
The ballad-singers, or wandering minstrels, are cited as 
the repositories of a longer piece (xxi. 27-30) which 
originally, in all probability, celebrated a victorious in- 
yasion of Moab by the North Israelites under Omri (see 
p- 313 f.). In the notes on the Balaam episode the view 
is expressed that the poems are of early date (see pp. 316, 
332), and not, as has recently been contended, documents 
of post-exilic eschatology. The authors of the Judaean 
and Ephraimite histories have fitted them with great 
effect into their literary treatment of the popular traditions 
respecting Balaam. 

In JE are also found various narratives of the kind 
familiar to modern historians as ‘aetiological legends.’ 
Thus several explicitly or implicitly explain the historical 
origin of place-names; but in many cases the name is 
really older than the story, which took its rise in the 
popular mind as an explanation of the name. 


C2 


20 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


V. THE History oF ISRAEL’S THEOCRATIC 
INSTITUTIONS (P8). 

With a few unimportant exceptions (see, for example, 
Num. xxi. 33-35), what remains of the first four books of 
the Pentateuch, when JE has been extracted, belongs to the 
work known as the priestly writing, or more ‘commonly 
the Priests’ Code (P). Taken as a whole, P is sharply 
and clearly differentiated from all the other Pentateuch 
sources, J, E, and D, by its vocabulary, its unique style, 
and its special interests. Even so ardent a champion of 
conservative views as Professor Orr admits that the P 
sections are ‘characterized by a vocabulary and style of 
their own, which enable them, on the whole, to be dis- 
tinguished. This result also, whatever explanation may 
be offered, has stood the test of time, and will not, we 
believe, be overturned’ (Ze Problem of the O.T., p. 197 ; 
cf. the similar-admissions, pp. 335 ff.). 

_ Notwithstanding the impression of unity which one 

derives from this prevailing uniformity —from which, how- 
ever, Ley. xvii ff. should strictly speaking be Bn (sce 
next section)—a closer study on comparative lines of the 
several elements of the priestly legislation shows, in 
Cornill’s words, ‘that the unity ts one of spirit only, that 
it is wot a literary unit that lies before us; in fact, the 
history of the origin and formation of P is complicated to 
a quite unusual degree’ (/ntvoduction to the Canonical 
Books of the O.T., p. 93). Into this complicated history 
it is impossible to enter here in detail (see the footnote 
on p. 13). But inasmuch as the whole of Leviticus and 
much the larger part of Numbers have been derived from 
one or other of the various strata of the priestly writings, 
some attempt must be made to put the student in a posi- 
tion to understand the repeated reference to such strata in 
the notes}. 


1Tt has not been thought necessary to introduce the symbols of 
these strata of P (P%, P”, Pt, P*) into the text, with the important 


INTRODUCTION 21 


Now the discovery of minor linguistic differences within 
the priestly writings, and in particular the careful study of 
the many duplicate laws which they contain, and the com- 
parison of these laws with each other and with the history 
of the rites and institutions concerned, have combined to 
show that P is in truth a growth of several centuries. As 
indicated in a previous section (p. 15) a central nucleus 
has gathered round itself a great variety of elements, some 
earlier, some probably contemporary, and some undoubtedly 
later in date. This nucleus (P8)1 was a work consisting 
partly of history and partly of law, composed c7vca 500 B.C. 
(according to the now generally accepted view): The aim 
which its author set before him was to give a /istory of 
the religious rites and institutions of Israel. The ideal of — 
the Hebrew state, as conceived by this devout student of the 
pastandeager builderfor the future, is that of a people living 
under the absolute sovereignty of God, and sanctified by 
His immediate Presence in their midst; in other words, 
atheocracy. Thetheme, therefore, of this kernel, not of P 
only but of the whole Pentateuch, may be said to be che 
history of the establishment of the theocracy and of the 
introduction of those laws, institutions, and rites by which 
the divine sovereignty received visible expression. 

From the very beginning of P® we see how the interest 
of its priestly’ author centres in the religious institutions 
which are represented as given by God to be the means of 
raising up and maintaining a holy people in perpetual 
covenant relationto their God, and of keeping them distinct 
from the nations around them. Thusthe story of creation 
(Gen. i, 1—ii. 4*) culminates in the institution of the 
Sabbath, the catastrophe of the deluge in the blood taboo 





exception of the Holiness Code (H or P®) in Lev. xvii-xxvi. 

In one or two places, however, it is indispensable for the 

understanding of the narrative to distinguish between earlier 

and later elements of the story, as, for example, between P? 

and P’ in Num. xvi. iW ; 
1 For the explanation of this symbol see above, p. 15. 


22 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


(id. ix. 43 cf. Lev. xvii. 10 ff.), the life of Abraham in the rite 
of circumcision (Gen. xvii. 10-14), These, it may he re- 
marked, are precisely the three ‘ signs’ by which the house 
of Israel through all the ages, down to our own day, have 
been specially distinguished from their Gentile neigh- 
bours, 

In this connexion it is important to observe that the 
institutions we have cited are all introduced in a definite 
historical setting, for this is one of the most useful tests for 
distinguishing theritual lawsof PS from thoseof other legis- 
lative sections, of the composite Priests’ Code. Thus, to 
continue ourrapid survey of the contents of P8, in Exod. xii. 
I-13, the Passover is instituted in immediate connexion 
with the historical situation, and its celebration on the eve 
of the great deliverance is to form the precedent and norm 
for all future celebrations (cf. the notes below on Lev. ix. 
Pp. 74, x. 12 ff. p. 79, xvi. 1, p. 111, and elsewhere). 

It is, however, in the crowning institution of the Taber- 
nacle and its worship that the history of Israel’s sacred 
institutions reaches its climax. Our priestly author dwells 
lovingly and expansively on all the details of the construc- 
tion of ‘the Dwelling’ of Yahweh, and on its equipment, its 
sacrifices, and its priesthood. Now, in order to grasp the 
full significance and value of these cardinal sections of the 
Pentateuch, it is essential to enter into the spirit and 
intention of their author. For the religious leaders of the 
Jewish community in the exile the supreme question was 
this: How can the broken harmony between God and the 
people of His covenant be restored?! To Ezekiel, first of 
all, came the Divine word of comfort: ‘ My dwelling shall 
[again] be with them, and I will be their God, and they 
shall be my people’ (Ezek. xxxvii. 27). To Ezekiel, then, 
and to those likeminded with him, the restored relation 
between Yahweh and Israel presented itself as an im- 
mediate dwelling of Yahweh in the midst of a holy nation. 


} See more fully the introductory note on p. 35 f. 


INTRODUCTION 23 


For the continued maintenance of this renewed relation, 
sacrifice, offered by a duly consecrated priesthood at the 
one appointed sanctuary, was the means divinely ordained 
(see p. 35). Only by this means could the restored com- 
munity of Israel, no longer a nation but a church (the 
‘church-nation’), realize its true ideal as the people 
of God. 

Now these two kindred spirits, Ezekiel and the author 
of the history of Israel’s theocratic institutions, sought 
to impress this ideal upon their contemporaries by dia- 
metrically opposite methods. Ezekiel projects his ideal 
forward into the golden age of the future (see Ezek. xl- 
xlviii) ; the author of P& throws his ideal backward into 
the golden age of the past, the period of the Exodus and 
the wilderness wanderings. Both sketches are none the 
less ideals whose realization for the priest as well as for the 
prophet was still in the future. Both had the worship of 
the restored community in view. 

‘In the Books of Leviticus and Numbers there is less 
that can be confidently assigned to PS than might at first 
sight be expected. Thus no part of Exod. xxx—Lev. vii? 
ean be so assigned, for the original continuation of Exod. 
xxv-xxix is now found in Lev. viii-x, which records the 
carrying out of the instructions given in Exod. xxix for the 
installation of Aaron and his sons as the priests of the 
wilderness sanctuary, and for the sacrifices appointed for 
the worship of the community (see pp. 69ff.). Similarly 
Lev. x is separated by chs, xi-xiv from its natural sequel 
in ch, xvi. The latter chapter, again, is followed by the 
separate code known as the Law of Holiness (xvii-xxvi), 
and it is not until we reach Num. i-iv that we recognize 
the main stream of P8, which here, however, has been 
considerably swollen by tributary contributions from later 
sources (see p. 135). Special attention may be called to 





1 For Exod, xxx-xl, see Bennett’s Exodus in Cent. Bible, and 
for Lev. i-vii below, pp. 28 f. and 37 ff. 


/ 


24 LEVITICUS AND ‘NUMBERS 


the arrangement of the camp in ch. ii. In this ideal City 
of God in the wilderness of Sinai we have the complement 
and crown of the religious symbolism embodied in the 
earlier sketch of the Tabernacle and its Court (see below, 
p- 194f.). The further instalments of P& cannot here 
be followed in detail, but mention may be made of the 
interesting contribution of this source to chs, xvi-xviii, 
which affords another illustration of the way in which 
a special piece of legislation is*represented as arising 
naturally out of a definite historical situation. It is doubt- 
ful whether P8 is represented in Numbers after ch. xxvii 
{see the note on p. 347). 

In the preceding exposition of the characteristics wad 
contents of PS the approximate date now generally adopted 
by critical students, viz. c7rca 500 B.C., has been assumed 
throughout. A datelaterthanthefallofthe Jewishmonarchy 
in 586 seems imperatively. required by the position and 
dignity assigned tothe High Priest. The latter has taken 
the place of the king as the civil and religious head of the 
theocratic state. On entering upon his office he receives 
‘a kingly unction,’ and is invested with the purple robé and 
the ‘ holy crown’ or diadem, the two, insignia of royalty 
in’ the Persian period (see Lev. viii. 7-9 with the note 
p. 70f.).. The argument for placing PS after Ezekiel based 
upon the fundamental distinction between priests and Le- 
vites will be found in the notes on p. 200 of the Commentary. 
Some scholars, finally, have detected a more précise indi- 
cation of date in the express subordination of the secular 
to the religious head of the community in Num. xxvii. 21. 
When the original text of Zech. vi. 9-13 was written in 
520 B.C., it was still believed that the two heads might 
be equal in dignity.: This equality, as the present text 
shows, was soon found to be impracticable, and already, 
by 500, it is believed, the spiritual head was assigned 
his unique supremacy (Merx, Die Biicher Moses und Josua, 
PP- 109, 155). 


INTRODUCTION 25 


VI. THE HOLINESS CODE (H or P*). 


This is the title now given tothe section of the Pentateuch 
consisting. of Lev. xvii-xxvi, a section which is sharply 
distinguished from the rest of the priestly legislation by the 
marked individuality of its phraseology and style, and by 
certain peculiar features in the formulation of its laws (note 
also the special subscription at the close, xxvi. 46). The 
name Holiness Code (Hecligkeitsgesetz) or Law of Holi- 
ness, whence the symbol H, was first given to it by Kloster- 
mann in 1877, and has been universally recognized as 
a happy description of a code whose recurring signature 
is holiness. More precisely, the holiness of Yahweh is 
throughout represented as the motive for the attainment 
of holiness, moral and ceremonial, on the part of His 
people. The words ‘ye shall be holy: for.I Yahweh am 
holy’ (xix. 2) may be fitly taken as the motto of the code 
(cf. the fuller statement, xxii. 31-33). 

In thus assigning a motive for the pursuit of his ideal 
of life, the compiler of H resembles the authors of Deutero- 
nomy for whom the compelling influence in man’s life is 
love, love to God ‘who first loved us.’ In contrast to 
both stands the author of Pg, with whom no such motive 
for obedience is found. In P man must obey because God, 
the All-sovereign, commands ; ‘ the divine imperative is its 
own all sufficient. motive’ (Moore, ZZ’. iii. col. 2783). In 
addition to this predominant motive of holiness we find— 
also as in Deuteronomy—motivesof humanity and charity 
adduced, especially in relation to the poor. 

The variety of subjects embraced in the legislation of H 
is remarkable for so smallacode. Inits terse formulation, 
in which it resembles the oldest of the Hebrew law-codes, 
the book of the Covenant (Exod. xx. 22— xxiii. 33), is re- 
flected the antiquity of its laws. In both codes these have 
had their origin in the 6r0¢h (singular 767a@/) or ‘ decisions’ 
of the priesthood in matters submitted for their judgement. 
Like the Book of the Covenant, also, and like the Deutero- 


oe LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


nomic Code, H opens with a section devoted to sacrifice 
(Lev. xvii) and closes with a hortatory address (xxvi) in 
which obedience to the preceding laws is vigorously in- 
culcated (see the reff. p. 119). In addition to laws relating 
to the cultus and its Zersonne/, the calendar of sacred fes- 
tivals (xxiii) and the like, H embraces legislation dealing 
with the foundation principles of social morality (xviii, 
xx). In H, furthermore, is included ‘perhaps the best 
representation of the ethics of ancient Israel" (Lev. xix). 
In this chapter we find among other jewels of price the 
second of the two commandments on which ‘the whole 
law hangeth and the prophets’ (Matt. xxii. 40, R.V.): 
‘thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Lev. xix. 18). 
Few points in the complicated problem of the Penta- 
teuch are more interesting, and at the same time more 
perplexing, than the history of H. Three conclusions, at 
least, seem well established. (1) These ten chapters of 
Leviticus are not a homogeneous corpus of laws, the 
original product of a single mind. The duplication of 
laws, with their inevitable discrepancies in detail, which is 
sO prominent a feature of the Pentateuch as a whole, 
is equally prominent in its smaller constituent (see e. g. 
the notes on chs. xviii and xx). In other words, H is 
a composite code compiled from more than one earlier 
collection of priestly 7évd¢h, and furnished by its compiler 
(R4) with the recurring call to holiness and with the closing 
hortatory address. (2) H 2s no longer extant in the form 
in which tt left its compilers hands. When fitted by Ezra 
or another into the larger complex of the Priests’ Code, 
which a comparison of Neh. x. 14 ff. with Lev. xxiii. 36 
(P) and 39(H) shows to have taken place before 444 B.C., 
H must have undergone considerable revision (see the 
notes fassim). Inthe process some sections were dropped 
to make room for corresponding sections of P&, especially 
in the closing division of the code now represented by 
chs. xxiii-xxv. Ofthe discarded sections, oneis universally 
‘recognized in the law of the tassels, Num. xv. 37-41. Lev, 


INTRODUCTION 24 


xi. 43-45 also bears the unmistakable signature of H, which 
has led to the belief that a large part of this chapter 
originally had a place in the Law of Holiness (for other sug- 
gested fragments of H, see Driver, ZO7*, pp. 59, 151, and 
cf. the notes below on Num. xxxiii. 50-56, and xxxv. 32 ff.). 
(3) The Holiness Code is older than the ground-work of 
the Priests’ Code (P8). The grounds on which this con- 
clusion is based emerge from a comparison of the laws 
common to both. The line of institutional development 
is from H to P8, not vice versa. This is particularly 
evident in the case of the great pilgrimage-festivals, as has 
been carefully explained in the notes (pp. 149 ff.). In H, 
again, the High Priest is still Arius inter fares, and has 
not yet acquired the commanding position and dignity 
accorded to him by P (see the note on Lev. xxi. 10; also 
those on xxi. 22, xxii. 3, on the absence from H of P’s 
distinction between ‘holy ’ and ‘most holy’ things). 
When we pass from these points of agreement to the 
question of the more precise dateof the compilationof H,and 
to the problem of the age of its component laws, we meet 
witha sharp cleavageamong our critical authorities. Both 
problems may be said to hinge upon the interpretation of 
a literary phenomenon which early attracted the attention 
of critical students, the intimate relation between H and 
Ezekiel. The details of this remarkable similarity of 
thought and expression will be found set forth in C-H, 
Hex. i. 147-51 (see also Driver, LOT®, pp. 146-8). What 
is the explanation? Was H compiled under the influence 
of Ezekiel, or is the prophet saturated with the phraseo- 
logy of H? To the present writer the latter alternative 
commends itself as the more probable on several grounds, 
To adduce but one, based on the impression produced by 
the study of the remarkable address in ch. xxvi, it seems 
to us much more likely that a writer of such marked 
individuality both of thought and expression as the author 
of this chapter—for, be it noted, it contains not a few 
striking and vigorous phrases to which there are no 


28 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


parallels in Ezékiel—has influenced a prophet who, ‘in 
expression, is far from original” (Driver), than that the 
reverse should be the case. 

The view represented in the Commentary, accordingly, 
is that the Holiness Code is a pre-exilic document, dating 
probably from near the close of the monarchy. The laws 
embodied in it, however, are believed to be, for the most 
part, pre-Deuteronomic /670¢h, representing, in the form in 
which they lay before the compiler of H, the decisions of 
the priesthoods of one or more of the famous sanctuaries 
of the land. Thus, to take but a single illustration, the 
perplexing phenomena of ch. xvii. 3-7 are best explained 
on the hypothesis that the original 46ra@h, now modified by 
successive redactors, recognized the legitimacy of the local 
sanctuaries (see pp. 120 ff.). By an editorial oversight, 
indeed, a reference to thése sanctuaries seems still pre- 
served in xxi. 23 (see the notes there and on verse 12 of 
this chapter, also on xxiii. 10 ff., &c., andespecially Moore’s 
article ‘ Leviticus,’ £27. iii. sects. 25-30). 


VII. SUPPLEMENTARY CODES (P*) AND LATER 
ADDITIONS (P§). . 


When the contents of P€ and H are subtracted from the 
complex of the priestly legislation (P), much of the legis- 
lative material, and part even of the narrative, of the 
Pentateuch still remains unaccounted for. Apart from 
numerous less extensive sections, three compact masses 
of ritual, ceremonial, and other laws stand out conspicu- 
ously. These are the manual of sacrifice in Lev. i—vii, 
the body of regulations dealing with uncleanness and puri- 
fication in Lev. xi-xv; and the miscellaneous chapters, 
Num. xxviii-xxxvi. 

Now with regard to the manual of sacrifice, first of all, 
the traces are still visible of the alterations which were 
found necessary to adapt it to the standpoint of P& with 
its Aaronic priesthood and wilderness background (see 
the note on Ley. i. 5 and /assim). In truth, these seven 


INTRODUCTION 29 


chapters have a somewhat complicated history of their 
own, the main points of which have been indicated on 
p. 37 of the Commentary. There the reasons are given for 
distinguishing the two parts of the manual as distinct in 
origin, and for believing that in i. 1—ii. 3 and iii. 1-17, at 
least, we have genuinely old sacrificial 767o¢i—hence the 
symbol P'—embodying the ritual usage of the Temple be- 
fore the fall of the southern kingdom. The same symbol 
is adopted in the Oxford Hexateuch for the second group 
of laws above referred to (see the ‘conspectus of codes’ in 
C-H. Hex. i. 261 ff., where zzter alia the bulk of Num. v— 
vi, and xix. 14-22 are included). These all lack, or lacked 
originally, the historical setting which we found to be 
characteristic of the legislation of P8. 

Returning to Lev. i-vii, we there meet for the first time 
with ritual enactments which, while conceived entirely in 
the spirit of the history of Israel’s theocratic institutions 
(P8), cannot have had a place in that work, but must 
belong to secondary strata of the Priests’ Code (hence 
the symbol Ps). It is important that the student should 
know some of the grounds on which this symbol appears 
so frequently in the notes.' In many cases this distinction 
between P2 and P® is based upon the evidence of the 
development of certain rites and institutions within the 
Priests’ Code. (1) Such evidence is found in the case of 
the rite of the priestly unction. In certain passages 
clearly belonging to P& (Exod. xxix. 7, 29; &c.), Aaron 
alone receives ‘the consecration of the anointing oil of 
his God’ (Lev. vili. 12; cf. xxi. Io, 12) ; hence the expres- 
sion ‘the anointed priest’ (iv. 3, 5, vi. 22) is sufficient to 
distinguish the High Priest. In other passages the rank 
and file of the priesthood are anointed (Exod. xxviii. 41, 

xxx. 30; Lev. x. 7; Num. iii. 3, &c.)—an extension of the 





11t has only occasionally been thought necessary to introduce 
PS into the text of R.V. (see e.g. Num. xvi). 


30 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


rite which suggests that the latter passages belong to a 
later stratum, P®. 2 
(2) A similar advance is seen in the more intense appli- 
cation of the blood of the sin-offering, In PS (Exod. xxix. 
12) the blood of the High Priest's sin-offering is merely 
smeared on the horns of the altar of burnt-offering; in 
Lev. iv. 6f. it is sprinkled within the sanctuary, ‘ before the 
veil’ (see also the note on iv. 25). (3) The presence in 
this chapter, and in other passages, of a special ‘altar of 
sweet incense,’ which is unknown to P8 in Exod. xxvii- 
xxix, is also recognized as a mark of later date (see on 
Lev, iv. 7). The right to refer the ritual of the sin-offering, 
as now formulated in ch. iv, to P8 is confirmed by the 
presence in Num. xv. 22-31 of an earlier and simpler form 
of the ritual. Similarly we find extensions of earlier 
requirements in Lev. xxv. 8-13 (the Jubilee), xxvii. 30-33 

(the tithe of cattle), and elsewhere. 

But there are many other clues no less convincing (see 
C-H. Hex. i. 154f.). Such are the ‘incongruities of fact 
and representation’ within a narrative belonging as a 
whole to P, of which an illustration will. be found in 
Num. xvi; a fondness for the elaboration of details and 
for unnecessary repetitions, of which Ley. vii is the clas- 
sical example; laws at variance with some fundamental 
principle of P8, such as are found in Num. xxxy (the 
Levitical cities); and narratives which do not fit into the 
plan of the ground-work of P, such as Num, xxvili-xxxyi 
(see the note on p. 347), or which have the appearance of 
having been specially composed to provide a required 
precedent, as Num, xxxi. To these indications of P® 
may be added ‘a number of peculiarities in phrase and 
formula,’ a list of which will be found in C-H. Hea. i. 155. 
As is there emphasized, however, ‘the secondary elements 
represented by P® are so plainly diverse in age that their 
addition to the great law-book may naturally be conceived 
rather as a literary process than as a specific editorial 
act.’ 


INTRODUCTION 3r 


Enough has now been said to give the student of 
Leviticus and Numbers an idea of the exceedingly com- 
plicated character of their literary history, as unravelled 
by modern scholars, and of the wide diversity in origin 
and age of the materials of which they are composed. 
Both books—Leviticus in particular—lead us to the very 
heart of the religion and sacrificial worship of the old 
covenant. But in order to be rightly understood it is 
essential that the worship, and the religion of which it is 
_ the expression, should be studied, as has been attempted 
in the following pages, in the light of their historical 
development. ‘For it is no slight matter that is herein 
involved—nothing less than this: whether it is to be made 
possible for us at all to understand the religious history of 
Israel, whether God, who always and everywhere reveals 
Himself and works in history, has also revealed Himself 
and worked in the same way in history’s greatest and 
most significant phase, the history of Israel’s religion’ 
(Cornill, Zxtvoduction to. ,. the Old Testament, p, 115f.). 


32 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


- 
9.7 


SYMBOLS OF THE LITERARY SOURCES INSERTED IN TH 
TEXT AND ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED IN THE NOTES. 


I—the early Judean history of Israel’s origins (see p. 15). 
E—the Ephraimite or North Israelite history (p. 15). 


gJ%—the historical work formed by the amalgamation of 7 
and © (pp. 15 ff.). i : 


D-—-the Book of Beuteronomy, only Num. xxi, 33-35: 


H—the Holiness Code (p. 25), compiled from earlier written 
collections by a Redactor (BR). ARTOIS 


P—the comprehensive symbol for the mass ‘of ‘legislative and 
historical material of various date which has emanated 
{rom Priestly circles. For the various strata, Ps, P*, P®, 
see the preceding Introduction, pp. 14 f., 20-31. 


#%—without further qualification, such as, Bi, Keay, nerally 
stands for the editor or redactor who united the mair 
body of P with JED (p. 15 f): 3 fitzte 


DB. Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible. ~ Five vols. 
EBi. Cheyne and Black’s Encyclopaedia Biblica. Four vols. 


PRE*. Hauck’s Realencyklopadie fiir protestantische Theologie, 
&c., 3rd edit. 


C-H. Hex. Carpenter and Harford-Battersby, The Hexateuch 
according to the Revised Version, &e. 


LOT. S.R. Driver, Introduction to the Literature of the O. T. 


OTJC*. and Rel, Sem’. W. Robertson Smith's Old Test. in 
the Jewish Church, and Religion of the Semites, 2nd eds. 


SBOT. Paul Haupt’s Sacred Books of the Old (and New] Tesés. 
J.Q.R. The Jewish Quarterly Review. ; 

PEFSt. Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement. 
ZATW. Zeitschrift fir d. alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. 


KAT*. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und d. alte Testament, 
grd ed. by Winckler and Zimmern. : 


M.T. The Massoretic or received Hebrew text. 
LXX. The Septuagint, i, e. the O. T. in Greek. 
A.V.,R.V. The Authorized and Revised English Versions. 


. 


Ort BOOK OF LEVIVIEUS 


REVISED VERSION WITH ANNOTATIONS 





fet, DOOK .OP .LEVITICUS 


First Division. Cuapters I—VII. 
Laws RELATING TO SACRIFICE. 


Tue Book of Leviticus opens with a section of the priestly 
legislation devoted to the important subject of sacrifice and 
offering. The point of view from which to approach the study of 
these chapters will best be reached by a brief survey of the spirit 
and aim of the developed sacrificial system of the Priests’ Code as 
awhole. The period of the Babylonian exile marks an epoch in 
the history of the religion of the Hebrews, and in particular in the 
history of sacrifice. The extinction of the state and the destruction 
of the temple had awakened a new feeling of national and 
individual guilt. The discipline of the exile further developed 
this conviction of the need of purification and propitiation. Along- 
side of the deepening sense of sin went a heightened conception 
of the Divine holiness, due in large measure to the teaching of 
Ezekiel. The exiled priest-prophet and those like-minded, such 
as the author of the Holiness Code, insisted that a holy God 
required a holy people: ‘Ye shall be holy: for I Yahweh your 
God am holy’ (Lev. xix. 2). 

These words may be taken as the master-key to the whole 
ceremonial legislation of the Pentateuch. God's all-devouring 
holiness requires that His people shall keep themselves free not 
only from moral transgressions—this is more frequently assumed 
than explicitly stated—but also from every ceremonial defilement 
that would interrupt the relations between them and their God. 
To maintain these relations unimpaired, or if interrupted to restore 
them, is, according to the teaching of the Priests’ Code, the object 
of sacrifice and offering. Sacrifice, in short, may be described as 
the divinely appointed means for the preservation and restoration of 
that holiness in virtue of which alone the theocratic community of 
Israel can realize its true ideal as the people of a holy God. 

The sacrificial system of the priestly writers is chiefly charac- 
terized by the sombre earnestness which takes the place of the 
joyousness of the pre-exilic worship. This is largely due to the 
greater emphasis laid upon the sacrifices as pracula, as the means 
of expiation and propitiation. Another characteristic feature is 
the importance which is now attached to the technique of sacrifice. 
As compared with the comparative freedom of earlier days every 
detail of the ritual is now prescribed. To deviate therefrom is to 
render the sacrifice invalid. The result is seen in the heightened 
status of the priest. In the earlier period the head of the family 


D2 


36 LEVITICUS 1—7. 


or of the clan offered his sacrifice without the intervention of the 
priest. Henceforth the layman’s part in the rite was quite 
subordinate (see below). 

The most convenient classification of the Jewish sacrifices is that 
suggested by Josephus, who divides them into two classes, those 
‘offered for private persons’ and those offered ‘ for the people in 
general’ (Antiquities, III. ix. 1), a classification corresponding to 
the sacra privata and sacra publica of the Romans, The public 
sacrifices were either stated or occasional, the former and more 
important group comprising the daily burnt-offering, and the 
additional sacrifices at the stated festivals, viz. sabbath, new moon, 
the three great annual feasts, &c. 

In the systematic manual of sacrifice which occupies the following 
seven chapters, five distinct varieties of sacrifice are enumerated, 
Of these three are attested from the earliest times, viz. ; (1) the 
burnt-offering, (2) the meal-offering, and (3) the peace-offering ; 
the other two, (4) the sin-offering and (5) the guilt-offering, 
the special expiatory sacrifices, are first met with in Ezekiel (see 
ch. iv), and were apparently unknown in the earlier period. 
Apart from the cereal or meal-offering, which has now fallen to 
a secondary place as for the most part an accompaniment of the 
burnt-offering, and the minor drink-offering, the material of the 
sacrifices consisted of ceremonially clean animals ‘of the herd and 
of the flock’ (Lev. i. 2 and often), the latter term including both 
sheep and goats. The victims, save in exceptional instances, were 
yearling males without blemish. Non-domestieated animals, such 
as the deer and the gazelle, although clean and therefore admissible 
as ordinary food (Deut. xii. 22), were not admitted to the altar. 
As wild creatures they were already the property of God, and 
could not therefore be received as a gift from man (2 Sam, xxiv. 24), 

/The ritual: of sacrifice, as has been said, is now minutely 
regulated. Although certain of the details may be new, the ritual 
as a whole undoubtedly represents the practice of the temple at 
the close of the pre-exilic period. As will be more fully explained 
in the sequel, the typical procedure comprised the following 
actions: (i) the formal presentation of the victim to the officiating 
priest ; (ii) the ‘laying on of hands,’ for which see oni. 4 below; 
(iii) the immolation of the victim on the north side of the altar 
(see on i. 11), which in the case of private or family sacrifices was 
done by the person presenting them; (iv) the manipulation of 
the blood by the priest—the central action of the rite—which 
varied with the different sacrifices (see oni. 5, iv.6, &c.); (v) the 
skinning and dismemberment of the animal, including the removal 
of the internal fat (see iii. 3 f.); (vi) the arrangement of all the 
pieces upon the altar in the case of the burnt-offering or of the 
specified portions of the ‘inwards’ in the case of the other 
sacrifices ; and finally (vii) the burning of these upon the ‘altar of 


\ 


LEVITICUS 1.1. P 37 


[P] Awp the Lorp called unto Moses, and spake 1 


burnt-offering’. Of these seven actions, iv, vi, and-vii, as requiring 
a near approach to, and even contact with, the altar, represent 
the priest’s share, the others the layman’s share in the rite of 
sacrifice. 

Arrangement and sources. The laws brought together in 
chs. i—vii fall into two distinct groups :— 

A. i. I—vi. 7, the ritual of the five principal kinds of offerings, 
addressed to the community as a whole (‘the children of Israel,’ 
1.2), 
 B. vi. 8—vii. 38, supplementary directions (¢6voth) addressed to 
the priests (‘ Aaron and his sons,’ vi. 9). 

That the final editor intended these seven chapters to form 
a distinct section of the book is evident from the colophon, vii. 37, 
38, which stands at the close. Originally, however, it belonged 
to the second subdivision only, as is clear (1) from the repetition of 
the formula ‘this is the law of’—see on vi. 8 ff.—and (2) from 
the discrepancy in the /ocus of the revelation : vii. 38 says Mount 
Sinai, while i. 1 has ‘the tent of meeting.’ These facts are 
sufficient to prove that chs. i—vii are not a homogeneous whole. 

But even the first group of chapters, i—vi. 7 (in the Heb. 
text i—v), cannot be so described. From numerous indications, to 
some of which attention is called in the notes, it appears that the 
oldest portions of the sacrificial legislation are those contained in 
i. I—ii. 3, and iii. 1-17. These, there is every reason to believe, 
are composed of genuinely old sacrificial ¢évofh—hence the 
symbol] P'—embodying the ritual usage of the temple before the 
fall of the southern kingdom, and now adapted editorially to 
the standpoint of the Priests’ Code (see oni. 1, 5). The bulk of 
chs. iv and v, dealing with the new piacular sacrifices, was 
probably first elaborated at the close of the exile or later. In 
their present form they are at least later than the groundwork 
(P8) of the Priests’ Code, hence the symbol P’, i.e. belonging to 
the secondary strata of P (see on iv. 7, 25). 

The special directions to the priests in chs. vi and vii presuppose 
the laws of i—iii, to which they are supplementary and therefore 
_ later. Interspersed with these are various wovellae, expansions of 
existing laws, such as ii. 4-16, some of which betray their separate 
origin by a somewhat different theory of sacrifice from that found 
in the main strata (e.g. v. 1-6). 

It has not been considered necessary to register these various 
strata of P in the text of R.V. 


A. i, 1—vi. 7. THe Five Principat OFFERINGS. 


This subdivision of Leviticus has been described as a ‘manual 
for worshippers, revised and enlarged from various sources, and 
—_ 


38 LEVITICUS 1. 2-4. B 


a unto him out of the tent of meeting, saying, Speak unto 
the children of Israel, and say unto them, When any man 
of you offereth an oblation unto the Lor», ye shall offer 
your oblation of the cattle, evex of the herd and of the 
flock. ' 

3 If his oblation be a burnt offering of the herd, he shall 
offer it a male without blemish: he shall offer it at the 
door of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted 

4 before the Lorp, And he shall lay his hand upon the 


in part re-written.”’ It comprises five sections, each dealing with 
one of the five principal types of sacrifice and offering above 
enumerated. 

1. out of the tent of meeting: A.V. inaccurately, ‘the taber- 
nacle of the congregation.’ This verse has been prefixed by an 
editor in order to connect the manual of sacrifice with the situation 
described in Exod. xl. 34 ff. For the discrepancy thereby caused 
with Lev. vii. 38, see above, and for the ‘tent of meeting’ see 
Bennett, Cent. Bible, on Exod, xxv ff. 

2. an oblation: Heb. forban, a term peculiar to Ezekiel and P. 
It means something ‘ brought near,’ viz. to God at the sanctuary, 
hence Mark vii. 11, ‘ Corban, that is to say, Given fo God.’ In P’s 
terminology it replaces the older term mu#hah, which is now con- 
fined to the cereal oblation or ‘ meal-offering.? For these and 
other sacrificial terms see the sections headed ‘ Terminology of 
Sacrifice’ in the writer’s article ‘Sacrifice and Offering’ in 
Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible (1909). 

(a) i. 3—17. The ritual of the burnt-offering?. Cf. vi. 8-13, 
Exod. xxix. 15-18, &c. 

3. a burnt offering: Heb. ‘é/ah, that which goes up (on the 
altar), with reference to the distinguishing feature of this offering, 
the burning of the whole victim upon the altar. It also bears the 
more distinctive name a/il, ‘ whole burnt offering’ (Deut. xxxiii. 
10, R.V.), or holocaust. The victims here prescribed are an ox, 
aram, or a he-goat (verses 10-13), each entire and without blemish 
(cf. Lev. xxii. 19 ff.), failing which a turtledove or a young pigeon 
(14-17). 

4. he shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt offer- 


1 Since the names of the sacrifices represent single words in the 
‘original, the method of the American Revised Version, standard 
edition, which employs the hyphen, is followed by preference in the 
notes. Coverdale has ‘burntofferynge,’ ‘ meatofferynge, &c., in one 
word, 


LEVITICUS 1. 5-9. P 39 


head of the burnt offering ; and it shall be accepted for 
him to make atonement for him. And he shall kill the 5 
bullock before the Lorp : and Aaron’s sons, the priests, 
shall present the blood, and sprinkle the blood round 
about upon the altar that is at the door of the tent of 
meeting, And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut 6 
it into its pieces. And the sons of Aaron the priest shall 7 
put fire upon the altar, and lay wood in order upon the 
fire: and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall lay the pieces, 8 
the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on 
the fire which is upon the altar; but its inwards and its 9 
legs shall he wash with water: and the priest shall burn 





ing. The significance of this ‘action’ of the ritual of sacrifice (for 
other offerings see iii. 2, 8, 13, iv. 4) has been much discussed. 
The act in all probability symbolizes the withdrawal of the animal 
from the sphere of the ‘common’ or profane, and its transference 
to the sphere of ‘ holy’ things—so termed from their close relation 
to the deity (see 1 Sam. xxi. 4)—as well as the offerer’s personal 
assignation of it to God. The traditional explanation, based on 
the outwardly similar but essentially different rite in Lev. xvi. er, 
that by the ‘laying on of hands’ the animal is made the substitute, 
in a penal sense, of the offerer, is without foundation. For the 
untenableness of this view, see art. ‘ Sacrifice’ &c., of. cit., 817 f. 

5. and Aaron’s sons, the priests: almost certainly an edi- 
torial substitution for ‘the priest’ of the original law, who still 
appears in verses 9, 12, 13, &c. The change was made in order 
to adapt this older /orvah to the standpoint of P, in which the 
priests are always termed the ‘sons of Aaron.’ 

and sprinkle the blood: rather ‘ dash’ or ‘toss’ the blood, 
So verse IT, ili. 2, 8, and oft. The blood was caught by the priest 
in a large bason as it spurted from the severed arteries, and was 
dashed against the sides of the altar. For sprinkling in the 
proper sense see iv. 6, 

7. shall put fire upon the altar. This points to an earlier 
stage of the ritual than that represented by vi. 13, according to 
which the fire was ‘ kept burning upon the altar continually.’ 

9. the priest shall burn the whole. The word here rendered 
‘burn’ is a technical sacrificial term meaning to ‘ make to smoke,’ 
and is quite distinct from the ordinary word for burning, used in 
iy. 12, 21, vii. 17, 19. Driver renders ‘shall consume the whole 
in sweet smoke.’ 


40 LEVITICUS 1. 10215." 8 


the whole on the altar, for a burnt offering, an offering 
made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lorp. 

ro And if his oblation be of the flock, of the sheep, or of 
the goats, for a burnt offering ; he shall offer it a male 

11 without blemish. And he shall kill it on the side of the 
altar northward before the Lorp: and Aaron’s sons, the 
priests, shall sprinkle its blood upon the altar round 

12 about. And he shall cut it into its pieces, with its head 
and its fat: and the priest shall lay them in order on the 

13 wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar; but the 
inwards and the legs shall he wash with water: and the 
priest shall offer the whole, and burn it upon the altar: 
it is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet 
savour unto the Lorp. 

14 And if his oblation to the Lorp be a burnt offering of 
fowls, then he shall offer his oblation of turtledoves, or 

15 of young pigeons. And the priest shall bring it unto 
the altar, and *wring off its head, and burn it on the 

® Or, pinch 


a sweet savour: literally an ‘odour of soothing,’ a favourite 
expression in P. Like the term ‘food,’ still applied to sacrifice 
(iii. 11, xxi. 6), it is a survival of a more primitive conception of 
sacrifice as affording physical pleasure to the deity. Cf, the early 
passage, I Sam. xxvi. 19, ‘let him accept (H#, ‘smell”) an offering.’ 
An interesting parallel occurs in the Babylonian epic of the flood : 
‘The gods smelt the savour, the gods smelt the goodly savour, 
the gods gathered likerflies over the sacrificer.’ 

11. on the side of the altar northward: i.e. in the court to 
the north of the altar. The choice of the north side is supposed 
to be connected with a Babylonian and North-Semitic myth of an 
abode of the gods, a Babylonian Olympus, m the north (see 
Whitehouse, Cent. Bible, on Isaiah, xiv. 13). 

12. with its head and its fat: this clause belongs to the next 
sentence after the word ‘ order’; cf. verse 8, where ‘ with’ should 
be read before ‘the head.’ For the fat, see iii, 3f. 

14-17. The law also makes provision for those too poor to pro- 
vide one of the normal victims, ox, sheep, or goat, as is expressly 
stated in the case of the sin- -offering, v. 7 ff. 


- 


LEVITICUS -15 26-230) |. P 41 


altar; and the blood thereof shall be drained out on the 
side of the altar: and he shall take away its crop with 16 
the “filth thereof, and cast it beside the altar on the east 
part, in the place of the ashes: and he shall rend it by 17 


_ the wings thereof, dv¢ shall not divide it asunder: and 


the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood 
that is upon the fire: it is a burnt offering, an offering 
made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lorn. 

And when any one offereth an oblation of a meal 2 
offering unto the Lorp, his oblation shall be of fine 
flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankin- 
cense thereon: and he shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the 2 
priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the 
fine flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the 
frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn 7¢ as 
the memorial thereof upon the altar, an offering made by 

® Or, feathers 





16. with the filth thereof: rather, with the Versions (VSS), 
A.V. and R. V. marg., ‘ with the feathers thereof.’ 


(6) ii. 1-16. The ritual of the meal-offering. Cf. vi. 14-23, 
Num, xy. 1-16. 

The meal-offering—better, cereal offering (A.V. ‘ meat offering’) 
—is here treated as an independent offering like the other four, 
but in the actual usage of the post-exilic period it generally 
appears as an accompaniment of the burnt-offering, as prescribed 
in Num, xv, or of the peace-offering, as contemplated in Lev. vii. 
11ff. The original term is minhah, which denotes a gift or 
present made to secure the goodwill of a friend (Gen. xxxii. 13, 
18) or of a sovereign (1 Sam. x. 27). In the older literature it is 
used as a comprehensive term for all offerings to Yahweh, 
whether animal or cereal (so Gen. iv. 3 ff and often). In P, how- 
ever, minhah is restricted to the cereal offerings. The material 
of the typical cereal oblation consisted of fine flour, cooked or un- 
cooked, with the addition of olive oil, salt, and frankincense. The 
bulk of the offering went to the priests. 

2. the memorial thereof: Heb. askarah, a term peculiar to P, 
here applied to the handful of paste (flour mixed with oil), with 
the frankincense—a fragrant gum-resin exuding from trees of the 


42 LEVITICUS 2. 3-8. PB 


3 fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lorp: and that which is 
left of the meal offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’: 
it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lorp made 
by fire. 

4 And when thou offerest an oblation of a meal offering 
baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine 
flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed 

5 with oil. And if thy oblation be a meal offering of the 
@baking pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled 

6 with oil. Thou, shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil 

7 thereon: it is a meal offering. And if thy oblation be 
a meal offering of the frying pan, it shall be made of fine 

8 flour with oil. And thou shalt bring the meal offering 

2 Or, flat plate 


genus Boswellia—which the priest burned upon the altar. The ~ 
object of this ‘memorial’ offering is supposed to have been to 
bring the offerer to Yahweh’s remembrance, but the etymology 
and original significance of the term are obscure. 

3. a thing most holy, &c. : the remainder of the flour is a per- 
quisite of the priests. The priestly legislation distinguishes 
between such priests’ dues as are ‘holy’ merely, and such as are 
‘most holy’ ; among the latter was included the flesh of the guilt- 
offerings and of the second grade of sin-offerings (see below). 
One practical result of this distinction was that ‘the most holy 
things’ could be eaten only by the priests, and by them only within 
the sanctuary precincts (vi. 16, 26), whereas the ‘ holy things’ 
might be consumed by the priests and their households, if cere- 
monially clean, in any ‘clean place,’ i.e. in actual practice, in 
Jerusalem (x. 14, xxii. 3, 10-16, &c.). For the dangerous con- 
tagion of holiness, see on vi. 18. 

4-16. The detailed instructions of this section give the impres- 
sion of being a later elaboration of the general law in verses 1-3, 
a view confirmed by the use of the second person as compared 
with the third person in chs. i, and iii. Verses 4-7 specify 
certain varieties of the cooked meal-offering, according as the 
material is cooked (1) in the baking-oven in the form of thick or 
thin wafer-like cakes, or (2) upon a griddle as pastry, or (3) in a 
cooking-pan as a pudding. 

5, the baking pan: rather, with marg., the convex iron plate 
or griddle, still in use among the Bedouin, 


LEVITICUS 2. 9-13. P 43 


that is made of these things unto the Lorp + and it shall 
be presented unto the priest, and he shall bring it unto 


the altar. And the priest shall take up from the meal 9 


offering the memorial thereof, and shall burn it upon the 
altar: an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto 
the Lorp. And that which is left of the meal offering 
shall be Aaron’s and his sons’: it is a thing most holy of 
the offerings of the Lorp made by fire. No meal offering, 
which ye shall offer unto the Lor», shall be made with 
leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, as 
an offering made by fire unto the Lorp. As an oblation 
of first/rwits ye shail offer them unto the Lorn; but they 
shall not come up for a sweet savour on the altar. And 
every oblation of thy meal offering shalt thou season with 
salt ; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of 
thy God to be lacking from thy meal offering: with all 
thine oblations thou shalt offer salt. 

And if thou offer a meal offering of firstfruits unto the 
Lorp, thou shalt offer for the meal offering of thy first- 
fruits corn in the ear parched with fire, bruised corn of 
the fresh ear. And thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay 


11f. The exclusion of leaven, i.e. of leavened flour or cakes, 
from the altar is to be explained on the ground that fermentation, 
to which honey was also liable, implied a process of corruption in 
the dough. Though not admitted to the altar, leaven and honey 
might be presented at the sanctuary and handed over to the priests, 
as were the ordinary firstfruits (verse 12 ; see also xxiii. 09): 

13. Here only is salt expressly prescribed, but from Ezek. xliii. 
24 and later usage, reflected in Mark ix. 49 (A. V. and R. V. marg.), 
it may be safely inferred that it was provided with every sacrifice. 
The custom goes back to the antique conception of sacrifice, above 
referred to, as a meal for the deity, for which the usual condiment 
was indispensable. For the school of P, however, the salt of the 
sacrifice has become a symbol of the irrevocable character of 
Yakweh’s covenant with Israel. For this view and for the salt 
of the covenant of thy God, see on Num, xviii. 19. 

14-16. In this cereal offering of firstfruits we have undoubtedly 


10 


It 


14 


15 


44 LEVITICUS 2. 16—8. 3. P 


16 frankincense thereon: it is a meal offering. And the 
priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the bruised 
corn thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all the 
frankincense thereof: it is an offerimg made by fire unto 
the Lorp. “} 

3 And if his oblation be a sacrifice of * peace offerings ; 
if he offer of the herd, whether male or female, he shall 

_2 offer it without blemish before the Lorp. And he shall 
lay his hand upon the head of his oblation, and kill it at 
the door of the ‘tent of meeting: and Aaron’s sons the 
priests shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round 

3 about. And he shall offer of the sacrifice of peace 
offerings an offering made by fire unto the Lorp; the 

2 Or, thank offerings 


one of the oldest varieties of the minhah (Gen. iv. 3; Exod. xxii. 
29). The shewbread is another of great antiquity (Lev. xxiv. 5 ff.). 


(¢) iii. 1-17. The ritual of the peace-offering. Cf. vii, 11-21, 28- 
34, XXii, 21-23. 

The third place in this manual of sacrifice is occupied by the 
sacrifice which, in the earlier period at least, was the typical altar 
offering, and accordingly is often designated ‘sacrifice’ par 
excellence. The full designation is that here given—‘a sacrifice of 
peace offerings’ (marg. ‘thank offerings’). The precise significa- 
tion of the original (shélamim) is uncertain. The current rendering 
‘peace offerings’ is based on the cognate noun signifying ‘ peace,’ 
and regards the sacrifice as the means of establishing harmonious 
relations with the deity. It is probable, however, that in ancient 
times the majority of the ordinary sacrifices were made in fulfil- 
ment of a vow, or in gratitude for benefits received or expected, 
so that shélamim is rather to be connected with the cognate verb 
meaning ‘to recompense, repay,’ and specially ‘to pay one’s vows’ 
(see Prov. vii. 14). On this view ‘recompense-offering’ or ‘sacri- 
fice of requital’ would be the best rendering, leaving ‘ thank offer- 
ing’ for the name of one of its varieties, mentioned with others 
in Lev, vii. 12f., 16, and as an independent sacrifice in xxii. 29. 

The ritual agrees in the main with that of the burnt-offering; 
only certain specified portions of the victim, however, were 
burned, the bulk of the flesh going to provide the sacrificial meal 
which was the distinguishing feature of the peace-offering. 

3. the fat that covereth the inwards: i.e. the entrails; see 


LEVITICUS 3. 4-11. P 45 


. fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon 
the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on 
them, which is by the loins, and the caul upon the liver, 
“with the kidneys, shall he take away. And Aaron’s 
sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt offering, 
which is upon the wood that is on the fire: it is an 
offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lorp. 

And if his oblation for a sacrifice of peace offerings 
unto the Lorp be of the flock ; male or female, he shall 
offer it without blemish. If he offer a lamb for his 
oblation, then shall he offer it before the Lorp: and he 
shall lay his hand upon the head of his oblation, and kill 
it before the tent of meeting: and Aaron’s sons shall 
sprinkle the blood thereof upon the altar round about. 
And he shall offer of the sacrifice of peace offerings an 
offering made by fire unto the Lorn ; the fat thereof, 
the fat tail entire, he shall take it away hard by the 
backbone ; and the fat that covereth the inwards, and all 
the fat that is upon the inwards, and the two kidneys, 
and the fat that is upon them, which is by the loins, and 
the caul upon the liver, » with the kidneys, shall he take 
away. And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is 
the ¢ food of the offering made by fire unto the Lorp. 

"Or, which he shall take away by the kidneys. » See ver 4. 

° Heb. bread. 


the coloured diagrams in Driver and White, Leviticus, in Haupt’s 
Sacred Books of the O.T. (SBOT), opposite p. 4. 

4. the caul upon the liver: according to G. F. Moore (Ortent. 
Studien Th. Noeldeke gewidmet (1906), 761 ff.), the part intended 
is the caudate lobe (Jobus caudatus) of the liver. This lobe played 
a prominent part in the favourite mode of divination by the liver 
(hepatoscopy) among the Babylonians and other ancient nations ; 
for this reason probably it is here expressly claimed for the altar. 
See Jastrow, Die Religion Babyloniens, &c., ii. 220, 231 f. 

9. the fat tail entire: in former times this was freely admitted 
to the table as a delicacy; see Cent. Bible on 1 Sam. ix. 24, 

11. the food of the offering made by fire: /:+,. ‘food offered 


4 


5 


6 
7 


8 


9 


It 


46 LEVITICUS 3. r2—4.2. P 


12 And if his oblation be a goat, then he shall offer it 

13 before the Lorp: and he shall lay his hand upon the 
head of it, and kill it before the tent of meeting: and 
the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle the blood thereof upon 

14 the altar round about. And he shall offer thereof his 
oblation, eve an offering made by fire unto the Lorp; 
the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is 

15 upon the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that 
is upon them, which is by the loins, and the caul upon 

16 the liver, “with the kidneys, shall he take away. And 
the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food 
of the offering made by fire, for a sweet savour: all the 

yy fatis the Lorp’s. It shall be a perpetual statute through- 
out your generations in all your dwellings, that ye shall 
eat neither fat nor blood. 


42 And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
the children of Israel, saying, If any one shall sin » un- 
® See ver. 4. > Or, through error 


by fire,’ see on i. 9 and xxi. 6. The introduction of fire to 
etherealize the offerings, so to say, marks a more advanced stage 

* in the history of Semitic sacrifice than the primitive practice of 
placing the offering upon a rock-altar, the earliest ‘table of the 
Lord’ (Mal. i. 7, 12). See Kittel, Studien sur hebrdischen Archdo- 
losie, 96-108. 

17. ye shall eat neither fat nor blood: the former prohibition 
is repeated at greater length in vii. 23 f. The blood taboo is 
common to all the law-codes; its raison d’étre in relation to 
sacrifice is given in the important passage, xvii. 11, which see. 





(d) iv. 1—v. 13. The ritual of the sin-offering. Cf. vi. 24-30, 
ix. 8 ff., 15; Exod. xxix. 11-14; Num. xv, 22-29, &c. 

While it is true that piacular efficacy was conceived as inherent 
in all the varieties of sacrifice and offering, the later sacrificial 
system developed two new varieties of offering as special expiatory 
sacrifices, the sin-offering and the guilt-offering. They probably 
made their appearance in the dark days which preceded the fall 
of the Jewish state, although Ezekiel is the first to differentiate 
them by name from the older types of offering (xl. go, xlii, 1g). 


LEVITICUS 4.2 P 47 


| wittingly, in any of the things which the Lorp hath 
commanded not to be done, and shall do any one of 


Of the two the sin-offering was much the more important. It 
was the prescribed medium for the expiation of two main classes 
of offences, viz. (r) sins committed in ignorance or by inadvertence 
(see on verse 2), and (2) cases of ceremonial defilement or unclean- 
ness, contracted in various ways and having no connexion with 
sin as a breach of the moral law, such as the defilement of child- 
birth and of leprosy, the uncleanness of the altar, and the like. 
The special features in the ritual of the sin-offering by which it is 
distinguished from the ritual of the older animal sacrifices are 
these : (1) the victim varies according to the rank of the offender 
in the theocratic community, and (2) the application of the blood, 
as the medium of expiation, varies in intensity on the same 
principle. The underlying idea of this graduated scale of atone- 
ment is found in the characteristic priestly view of sin as unclean- 
ness ; the ‘sins’ above enumerated, even the ‘sin’ of a woman in 
her discharge of the—to us holy—function of motherhood, were 

_ viewed as not only defiling in themselves, but as sources of further 

impurity and defilement for the whole community. The higher 
the theocratic rank of the offender, the greater, according to the 
antique and now resuscitated conception of the contagion both of 
holiness and uncleanness, was his power of contamination (see 
verse 3, ‘bring guilt upon the people’), and the more potent 
therefore the cathartic required for his purification. 

2. If any one shall sin unwittingly: the original of the last 

word is a technical term of P, and denotes sins committed in 
ignorance or by inadvertence (cf. Num. xv. 24-29), as opposed to 
sins committed ‘with an high hand’ (ibid. 30f.), that is, in wilful 
defiance of the Divine law. For such sins no sacrifice could make 
expiation (cf, note on xvi. 21). Moreover, in the sphere of morals 
only unwitting sins are contemplated, for these are the only offences 
of which the holy people of the priestly ideal would be guilty. 


3-12. The High Priest's sin-offering. 

Four varieties of sin-offering are prescribed in iv. 3 ff., two of 
which are sin-offerings of the first grade, and two of the second. 
The former class includes the sacrifice for the High Priest (verses 3- 
12), and that for the community as a whole, in which the rank 
and file of the priesthood are included (verses 13-21) ; inthesecond 
grade fall the sin-offerings for a secular chief (verses 22-26) and for 
an ordinary layman (verses 27-35). The sin-offerings of the first 
grade are distinguished from those of the second by the greater 
intensity of the blood-ritual, as indicated above, and by the 
sacrosanct character of the flesh of the victim, as will be more 
fully explained in the notes. 


48 LEVITICUS 4. 3-6. P 


3 them : if the anointed priest shall sin so as to bring guilt 
on the people; then let him offer for his sin, which he 
hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the 

4 Lorp for a sin offering. And he shall bring the bullock 
unto the door of the tent of meeting before the Lorp ; 
and he shall lay his hand upon the head of the bullock, 

5 and kill the bullock before the Lorp. And the anointed 
priest shall take of the blood of the bullock, and bring it 

6 to the tent of meeting: and the priest shall dip his finger 


3. the anointed priest: so verses 5, 16 and vi. 22 to designate 
the High Priest, the theocratic head of the post-exilic community. 
In the earlier strata of the Priests’ Code, the High Priest 
alone receives ‘the consecration of the anointing oil of his God’ 
(viii. 12; cf. Exod. xxix. 7) ; in the latest strata the whole body 
of the priesthood, ‘the sons of AND receive this consecration 
(Exod. xxviii. 41, xxx. 30, xl. 15). See note on viii. 30. 

a sin offering: Heb. hatlath, The word in the original is that 
usually rendered ‘sin? The intensive stem. of | the root-verb, 
however, is continually used in P in the, privative Ae at 
cleansing from defilement, to purify, to ‘un-sin, age Viii 
‘Moses ... purified (Jit, un-sinned) the altar’ Cf Ps. fi 5, 2 
EVV ‘purge’; Ezek. xliii. 20, EVV ‘cleanse,’ As used to desi 
this new species of sacrifice, therefore, fattath seems primarily ni 
express its efficacy as a medium of purification or ation, 
a meaning which the word undoubtedly has in Num. viii. 7 and 
xix. 9, 17 (see there). Sin, both moral and ceremonial—for, as 
was shown above, the two spheres are confused by the priestly 
writers—is conceived by the latter as belonging to €_com- 
prehensive category of uncleanness. It is a defilement affecting 
not only the individual, but, by its contagious potency, the whole 
community, and ¢fso facto interrupting the ideal relation of God to 
His people. 

This idea of sin as something that can be washed away like 
a physical stain is really, like so much else in the priestly codes, 
a survival of a primitive and widely spread conception common to 
many religions (see Farnell, The Evolution of Religion, Lecture iii : 
The Ritual of Purification and the Conception of Purity). 

In short, both etymology and comparative religion suggest that 
the literal sense of hattath is not sin-offering, but ‘ #m-sin’ offering, 
and its proper rendering therefore ‘ purification’ or ‘ purgation’” 
offering. 

4. he shall lay his hand, &c., See oni, 4. 


LEVITICUS 4. 7-10. P 49 


_ inthe blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before 

the Lorp, before the veil of the sanctuary. And the 7 
priest shall put of the blood upon the horns of the altar 
of sweet incense before the Lorp, which is in the tent 
of meeting; and all the blood of the bullock shall he 
pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which 
is at the door of the tent of meeting. And all the fat of 8 
the bullock of the sin offering he shall take off from it ; 
the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is 
upon the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that 9 
is upon them, which is by the loins, and the caul upon 
the liver, ® with the kidneys, shall he take away, as it is 10 
taken off from the ox of the sacrifice of peace offerings : 

© See ch. iii. 4. 





6. and sprinkle of the blood: a different term in the original 

from that wrongly so rendered in 1.5, which see. 

before the veil of the sanctuary. In the first grade of sin- 
offerings the blood is brought into the Holy Place of the Tabernacle 
(or Temple), which was divided by the veil (Exod. xxvi. 33) from 
the Most Holy Place. The greater the defilement, the nearer the 
cleansing blood was brought to the sacred presence of Yahweh. 
In the rite of the Day of Atonement we have a still more potent 
application of the blood (Lev. xvi. 14). 

7. the altar of sweet incense: called in verse 18 ‘the altar 
which is before Yahweh’—contrast xvi. 18, where the altar of 
burnt-offering is so designated. The altar of incense, as it is more 
_ usually termed, is found only in the later strata of P (P8); see 
Bennett, Exodus, p. 235 f., and. Hastings’ DB, iv. 664. Even in 
the directions for the Day of Atonement (xvi..12) the ‘sweet 
incense’ is still offered in a censer. 

the altar of burnt offering: so in P’ (Exod. xxx. 28, &c.), 
to distinguish it from the altar of incense. In the older strata of 
P it is designated simply ‘the altar’ (Exod. xxvii. 1 ff.; Lev. ix. 
7, 8, &c.—all P8; i. 6 ff, ii. 2, iii. 2 ff, &c.—all P). The 
references in this chapter to the two altars on the one hand, and 
to the anointed priest on the other, bring home to one the fact that 
the laws embodied in the completed priestly legislation, as it now 
Jies before us in the Pentateuch, represent a long course of 
development. This chapter, for example, must be younger than 
_ the groundwork of P (P®), represented by chs, ix and x, still 


E 


50 LEVITICUS 4. 115.9 


and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of burnt 

11 Offering. And the skin of the bullock, and all its flesh, 
with its head, and with its legs, and its inwards, and its 

12 dung, even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without 
the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured 
out, and burn it on wood with fire: where the ashes are 
poured out shall it be burnt. 

13 And if the whole congregation of Israel shall err, and 
the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly, and they 
have done any of the things which the Lorp hath 

14 commanded not to be done, and are guilty; when the 
sin wherein they have sinned is known, then the assembly 
shall offer a young bullock for a sin offering, and bring it 

15 before the tent of meeting. And the elders of the 
congregation shall lay their hands upon the head of the 
bullock before the Lorp: and the bullock shall be killed 


younger therefore than the bulk of chs. i-iii, yet not so recent as 
those parts which assume the anointing of the ordinary priests 
(see on verses 3, 25), 

11. Note the distinction as regards the disposal of the flesh 
between the sin-offerings of the first grade, where it is burned 
outside the camp, and those of the second grade, the flesh of 
which falls to the priests to be eaten within the sacred precincts 
(compare vi. 26, 29 with 30). This is explained by the fact that 
in the former case the priests are excluded from partaking of the 
flesh, both as sharing in some measure in the defilement of their 
representative the High Priest, and as members of ‘ the congrega- 
tion of Israel.’ The disposal of the flesh was an essential part of 
the rite, and until it was accomplished the priests were still in 
their sin. In the case of the second-grade offerings the priests, 
on the contrary, were in the normal condition of purity. 


iv. 13-21. The sin-offering of the congregation. — 

13. congregation ... assembly: the former is P’s favourite 
designation of the theocratic community of Israel as a whole, but 
the latter is not unfrequently employed as here, verse 21 and Num. 
xvi. 3, as a synonym. For the very significant history of the 
corresponding Greek (LXX) terms, see art. ‘Congregation’ in 
Hastings’s D2 (1909). 


LEVITICUS 4. 16-20. P 51 


before the Lorp. And the anointed priest shall bring 
of the blood of the bullock to the tent of meeting: and 
the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle 
it seven times before the Lorp, before the veil. And he 
shall put of the blood upon the horns of the altar which 
is before the Lorp, that is in the tent of meeting, and 
all the blood shall he pour out at the base of the altar of 
burnt offering, which is at the door of the tent of meeting. 
And all the fat thereof shall he take off from it, and burn 
it upon the altar. Thus shall he do with the bullock ; 
as he did with the bullock of the sin offering, so shall he 
do with this: and the priest shall make atonement for 





20. the priest shall make atonement for them. To atone, 
which now means to ‘make amends,’ originally meant to ‘set at 
one’ (Acts vii. 26), to reconcile persons at variance. Atonement, 
formerly ‘at onement,’ is in our English Bible accordingly a 
synonym of reconciliation. These, however, are not the ideas 
inherent in the Hebrew verb &zpper, here and elsewhere rendered 
‘to make atonement.’ The original meaning of the root is still 
in dispute, but in the sacrificial terminology kipper has acquired 
a very special signification, for which there is no single equivalent 
inEnglish. Even the construction of the verb is altered, for where- 
as in the earlier extra-legal writers, when it is used in connexion 
with sin, God is frequently the subject, in Ezekiel and P the 
subject is almost invariably the priest, and the verb is used as 
the summary expression for the performance by the priest of 
certain rites’ by which sin, viewed as uncleanness or defilement 
(see above on verse 3), 7s removed and the way opened for the 
sinner’s forgiveness. The medium by which this removal of sin— 
‘cancelling’ would imply too ethical a conception of sin in this 
connexion—is effected is sometimes said to be the sacrificial 
victim, as in i. 4; but this it is only 7” wirtue of tts blood, which is 
the real cathartic or expiatory medium, as expressly stated in the 
cardinal passage xvii. 11. 

How, then, may this special connotation of Aipper in the 
sacrificial terminology be adequately expressed in English? In 
the fairly numerous cases in which the rite is performed on behalf 
of an inanimate object, where the sin or defilement is to our way 
of thinking ‘Purely physical, as in vill. 15, xiv. 53, xvi. 16, the old 





a In Babylonian takpirtu, eon ‘the comeupondines verb ; see Zia 
mern, Die Keilinschriften u. d. alte Test. 3rd ed. (KAT*), 601 f. 


E2 


ar 


$2 LEVITICUS 4. 21. B> 


them, and they shall be forgiven. And he shall carry 
forth the bullock without the camp, and burn it as he 





A.V. rendering ‘ purge’ seems fairly adequate (see, ©-Bey Ezek. 

xliii. 20, where the command is given to ‘ unsin and purge’ Chipper) 
the altar, and verse 26 where, in the reverse order, it is to be 
purged and cleansed—R.V. here, as elsewhere, ‘make atonement 
for’), In the case of persons, also, when the rite is said to kipper 
the sinner from his sin (iv. 26, v. 6, 10, &c.), it is difficult not to 
think that the idea of ‘ purging from’ was clearly in the writer’s 
mind. On the other hand, this rendering fails to do justice to the 
ethical moment in sin, even as defilement, viewed in its relation 
to the divine holiness. The expression we seem to require is one 
that is constantly associated by Greek and Roman writers with 
rites of purgation or purification, namely expiare*, to expiate, make 
expiation for. 

The revisers have introduced *to make expiation for’ as the 
rendering of £ipper in two passages, Num, xxxv, 33 and Deut. xxxii 
43—in both cases ‘the land’ is the object—and elsewhere in their 
margins. Strictly speaking, it is the blood of the sacrifice that 
‘makes expiation’; the priest ‘ performs the rite of expiation on 
behalf of’ the sinner; but the latter is too cumbrous, and the 
shorter, though less accurate, expression may, in the writer's 
opinion, be accepted as on the whole the most adequate rendering 
of this much discussed term. ‘To make propitiation for’ is further 
from the special significance of the word in P; still further is 
‘to make atonement for’ in the sense of ‘reconcile.’ To ‘make 
expiation for’ has the further advantage of being more applicable 
than these alternatives to material objects, since a uniform render- 
ing is after all desirable 2. 


and they shall be forgiven: the performance of the rite of 
expiation ensures the pardon of the sinner, but the sequence is 
properly one of time, not of cause and effect ; for the real ground 





1 See Wissowa, Religion der Romer,3 27, note 4, where the following 
quotation is given from Servius. Aen. iii. 279: lustramur, id est 
purgamur, ut Iovi sacra faciamus; aut certe ‘lustramur Iovi’ 
id est expiamur. 

? Recent discussions of the meaning of &ipper will be found in 
Driver’s article,‘ Propitiation’ in Hastings’s DB, iv,128-132, and more 
briefly in his Deuteronomy, 425 f.; Joh. Hermann, Die Idee der 
Siithne im alten Testament (1905)—a study of all the O.T. passages ; 
A. B. Davidson, Theology of the Old Test..327 ff., 348 ff.; H. P. Smith, 
‘The Old Testament Theory of Atonement’ in the Amer. Fournal 


of Theology, July, 1906 (pp. 412-422). 


LEVITICUS 4. 22-25. . P 53 


burned the first bullock: it is the sin offering for the 
assembly. 

When a ruler sinneth, and doeth unwittingly any one 
of all the things which the Lorp his God hath com- 
manded not to be done, and is guilty ; if his sin, wherein 
he hath sinned, be made known to him, he shall bring 
for his oblation a goat, a male without blemish; and he 
shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat, and kill it 
in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the 
Lorp: it is asin offering. And the priest shall take of 
the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it 
upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and the 
blood thereof shall he pour out at the base of the altar 





of the forgiveness is the free grace of God who revealed Himself 
as ‘a God full of compassion and gracious... and plenteous in 
mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression’ (Exod. xxxiv. 6; 
Num. xiv. 18). The sacrifice, in virtue of the cleansing and 
*un-sinning’ efficacy of the blood, in particular, merely removes 
the barrier to the action of the divine grace. ‘None of the 
prophets, not even Ezekiel, refers to sacrifice as the means of 
atonement for the sins of the people ; God forgives of His grace 
and mercy alone’ (Davidson, Theology of the O.T., 330). In the 
Babylonian ritual, the verb corresponding to that here rendered 
‘forgiven’ is frequently found asseciated, as here, with kuppuru, 
with the meaning ‘ to sprinkle’ with the sacrificial blood (Zimmern, 
op. cit., 602), 


iv. 22-26. The sin-offering of the secular heads of the community. 

This and the following (verses 27 ff.) form the sin-offerings of 
the second or lower grade, distinguished from those of the first 
grade by the following features: (1) the blood is not brought 
within the sanctuary; (2) the victim is of less value, a goat or 
a lamb, and its flesh is eaten by the priests; (3) the officiating 
priest is one of the ordinary priesthood. 

22. a ruler: one of the secular chiefs of the community. The 
word is that rendered ‘ prince’ in Num. ii, vii, and elsewhere. 

25. The application of the blood in this instance is not by 
sprinkling but by smearing with the finger. It is interesting to 
note that in the groundwork of P (P®) the inferior blood-rite here 
prescribed is sufficient for the High Priest’s sin-offering (Exod. 
xxix, 12; Lev. viii. 15): another indication, when compared with 


No 
ia} 


24 


54 LEVITICUS 4. 26-33. BP 


26 of burnt offering. And all the fat thereof shall he burn 
upon the altar, as the fat of the sacrifice of peace 
offerings: and the priest shall make atonement for him 
as concerning his sin, and he shall be forgiven. 

27 And if any one of the *common people sin unwittingly, 
in doing any of the things which the Lorp hath com- 

28 manded not to be done, and be guilty ; if his sin, which 
he hath sinned, be made known to him, then he shall 
bring for his oblation a goat, a female without blemish, 

29 for his sin which he hath sinned. And he shall lay his 
hand upon the head of the sin offering, and kill the sin 

30 Offering in the place of burnt offering. And the priest 
shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put 
it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and all 
the blood thereof shall he pour out at the base of the 
altar. And all the fat thereof shall he take away, as the 
fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace offerings ; 
and the priest shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet 
savour unto the Lorp; and the priest shall make atone- 
ment for him, and he shall be forgiven. 

32 And if he bring a lamb as his oblation for a sin 
offering, he shall bring it a female without blemish. 

33 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offer- 
ing, and kill it for a sin offering in the place where they 

* Heb, people of the land. 


verses 6, 7 above, of the gradual development of the ritual, and 
of the later date of this chapter, which belongs to P*. 

26. as concerning his sin: /it, ‘from his sin,’ a different 
preposition from that rendered ‘as touching’ in verse 35. The 
meaning of the original may be thus expressed: ‘the priest shall 
perform the rites of expiation on his behalf, and he shall be 
purged from his sin, and so made capable of receiving, as he shall 
receive, the divine forgiveness.’ 

iv. 27-35. The ordinary layman's sin-offering. 

The only difference from the foregoing sacrifice is in the inferior 
sex of the victim and the alternative of a lamb, 


+ 


3 





LEVITICUS 4. 34—5. 2. P 55 


__ kill the burnt offering. And the priest shall take of the 24 

blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it 
upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and all the 
blood thereof shall he pour out at the base of the altar: 
and all the fat thereof shall he take away, as the fat of 35 
the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice of peace offer- 
ings ; and the priest shall burn them on the altar, * upon 
the offerings of the Lorp made by fire: and the priest 
shall make atonement for him as touching his sin that 
he hath sinned, and he shall be forgiven. 

And if any one sin, in that he heareth the voice of ad- 5 
juration, he being a witness, whether he hath seen or 
known, if he do not utter 77, then he shall bear his 
iniquity : or if any one touch any unclean thing, whether 
it be the carcase of an unclean beast, or the carcase of 
unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, 
and it be hidden from him, and he be unclean, then he 

* Or, after the manner of 


»n 





v. 1-6. Special cases in which a sin-offering ts required. 

The original continuation of ch. iv is found inv. 7. The inter- 
vening verses are best taken as a later insertion giving a number 
of illustrative cases where a sin-offering is required. 

1. the voice of adjuration: /i#. ‘a curse.’ The first of the 
four cases here adduced is the sin of withholding evidence in 
a court of law. As this can scarcely be described as a sin of 
inadvertence (iv. 2), the author of this section evidently held 
a different theory of the sin-offering from that underlying ch. iv. 
The ‘curse’ is one pronounced upon a criminal and all concerned, 
with a view to extracting confession and evidence (Judges xvii. 2; 
Prov. xxix. 4). 

if he do not utter it: compare the unwritten saying (agraphon) 
of our Lord: ‘I say unto you that every good word which men 
shall not speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day 
of judgement’ (Lewis and Gibson, Palestine Syriac Lectionary, 
p. Xxx). ° 

2. creeping things: rather, ‘creatures that swarm’; i.e. are 
found in large numbers, whether in the sea (xi..10) or on the 
land (xi. 29 f.). This and the following category (verse 3) are 
more fully and somewhat differently dealt with in chs. xi-xy. 


56 LEVITICUS 5. 3-5. PB 


3shall be guilty: or if he touch the uncleanness of 
man, whatsoever his uncleanness be wherewith he is 
unclean, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, 
4 then he shall be guilty: or if any one swear rashly with 
his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a 
man shall utter rashly with an oath, and it be hid from 
him ; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in 
5 one of these /Aings: and it shall be, when he shall be 
guilty in one of these ¢Aings, that he shall confess that 
6 wherein he hath sinned : and he shall bring * his guilt offer- 
ing unto the Lorp for his sin which he hath sinned, a 
female from the flock, a lamb ora goat, for a sin offering; 
and the priest shall make atonement for him as concern- 
ying his sin. And if his means suffice not for a lamb, 
then he shall bring * his guilt offering for that wherein he 
hath sinned, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto 
the Lorp; one for a sin offering, and the other for a 
8 burnt offering. And he shall bring them unto the priest, 
who shall offer that which is for the sin offering first, and 
b wring off its head from its neck, but shall not divide it 
9 asunder: and he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin 
offering upon the side of the altar; and the rest of the 
* Or, for his guilt Or, his trespass offering — » Or, pinch 





5. and it shail be: insert, as in verses 3, 4, ‘when he knoweth 

of it, then,’ &c. , 
he shall confess: add, with LXX: ‘his sin’ wherein, &c 
Public confession is required only here and Num. i" q.. The case 

of Lev. xvi, 21 is different. 

6. his guilt offering: render ‘as an amend Pie penalty) for 
his sin,’ the word ’@sham not having here the technical sense which 
it has in verses 15 ff. 

v. 7-13. The sin-offerings of the poor (continuation of iv. 1-35). 

7. a lamb: the original term includes both sheep and goats ; 
see Exod. xii. 5. 

his guilt offering: to be explained as in verse 6, or more pro- 
bably as a copyist’s slip for ‘his oblation,’ as iv. 23, 28, 32. 


LEVITICUS 5. ro-13, P 57 


blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar: it is 
asin offering. And he shall * offer the second for a burnt 


_ offering, according to the ordinance: and the priest shall 
make atonement for him as concerning his sin which he 
hath sinned, and he shall be forgiven, 

But if his means suffice not for two turtledoves, or two 


young pigeons, then he shall bring his oblation for that 


wherein he hath sinned, the tenth part of an ephah of 
fine flour for a sin offering; he shall put no oil upon it, 
neither shall he put any frankincense thereon: for it is a 
sin offering, And he shall bring it to the priest, and the 
priest shall take his handful of it as the memorial thereof, 
and burn it on the altar, » upon the offerings of the Lorp 
made by fire: it is a sin offering. And the priest shall 
make atonement for him as touching his sin that he hath 
sinned in any of these things, and he shall be forgiven: 
and ¢he vemnant shall be the priest’s, as the meal offering, 
" Or, prepare > Or, after the manner of 


11-13 contain a special provision for the very poor of the 
community. This admission of a bloodless cereal oblation as 
a sin-offering is of importance as showing the untenableness of 
the ‘life for a life’ theory (poena vicaria) of sacrifice ; see on i. 4. 

11. the tenth part of an ephah: lit, ‘an ‘zssavon,’ the measure 
elsewhere termed the omer (see Exod. xvi. 36), and equal to about 
q pints. The absence of oil and frankincense distinguishes this 
offering from the ordinary meal- offering of ch, ii. 


(© v. 14—vi. 7. The law of the guilt-offering. Cf. vii. 1-7, Num, 
v. 5-8. 

- The second of the new piacular sacrifices is termed the ‘asham, 
the guilt- or trespass- (so A. V. and R.V. marg.) offering. Inthe 
earlier literature ’asham denotes a gift (1 Sam. vi. 3f.) or money 
payment (2 Kings xii. 16 f.), by which, in addition to restitution, 
it was sought to make amends for the wrong committed. There 
is a lack of consistency in the attitude of the various priestly 
legislators to this piaculum. The leper’s guilt-offering (Lev. xiv. 
12ff.), for example, is indistinguishable from an ordinary sin- 
offering. In the cardinal passage now before us, however, the 
guilt-offering is plainly prescribed for offemces involving the nis- 


4 


fo) 


14 
15 


16 


17 


58 LEVITICUS 5. 14-17 BP. 


And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, If any one 
commit a trespass, and sin unwittingly, in the holy things 
of the Lorp ; then he shall bring his guilt offering unto 
the Lorp, a ram without blemish out of the flock, 
according to thy estimation in silver by shekels, after the 
shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering: and he 
shall make restitution for that which he hath done amiss 
in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto, 
and give it unto the priest: and the priest shall make 
atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, ne 
he shall be forgiven. 

And if any one sin, and do any of the things which 
the Lorp hath commanded not to be done; though he 





appropriation of the property of another (vi. 2), especially of the 
sacred dues, ‘the holy things of the Lord’ wv. 15). Its charac- 
teristic feature is the restitution of the property or due withheld, 
together with a fine amounting to one-fifth of its value as com- 
pensation for the loss sustained, The ritual of the sacrifice is 
more fully given in vii. 1-7, where the points of divergence from 
the ritual of the ordinary sin-offering will be noted. 
15. If any one commit a trespass: rather ‘a breach of faith,’ 

a technical expression in Ezekiel and P especially for breaking 
faith with God; in Num. vy. 12, 27 it is used of a wife breaking 
faith with her husband. 

and sin unwittingly: see on iv.2. The cases enumerated 
in vi.2f. hardly. come under this category; the same difficulty 
emerged in connexion with the sin-offering in verse I. 

in the holy things of the LORD: the reference is to the 
withholding or incomplete rendering of the firstfruits and other 


_dues of the sanctuary, and to sacrilegious partaking of the flesh of 


such sacrificial victims as were the perquisite of the priests (xxii. 
14-16). 
after the shekel of the sanctuary: the so-called Phoenician. 

silver shekel of 224 grains, value about 2s. 9d. The extant 
Jewish shekels weigh a little less than this, circa atg-aa0 grains, 
For this identification see the writer’s art. ‘Money’ in Hastings’s 
DB, iii. 422. 

17-19 are a Jater insertion, breaking the connexion between 
v. 16 and vi. 1, and probably dating from a time when the dis- 
tinction between the two expiatory sacrifices was becoming 


LEVITICUS 5.18—6. 4. P 59 


‘ 


‘knew it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity. 

_ And he shall bring a ram without blemish out of the 18 

- flock, according to thy estimation, for a guilt offering, 

_ unto the priest: and the priest shall make atonement for 

_ him concerning the thing wherein he erred unwittingly 

and knew it not, and he shall be forgiven. It is a guilt r9 

J . . 

_ Offering : he is certainly guilty before the Lorp. 

_ *®And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Ifany one sin, 6 

_ and-commit a trespass against the Lorp, and deal falsely 

_ with his neighbour in a matter of deposit, or of » bargain, 
or of robbery, or have oppressed his neighbour ; or have 3 
found that which was lost, and deal falsely therein, and 
swear to a lie; in any of all these that a man doeth, sin- 
ning therein: then it shall be, if he hath sinned, and is 4 
guilty, that he shall restore that which he took by robbery, 

*[Ch. v. 20in Heb.] Or, pledge 


I 
2 


confused or was not clearly understood. Although the sacrifice 
here required is expressly termed a guilt-offering in verse 19, 
and the victim is the usual ram, there is no mention of the charac- 
teristic fine of one-fifth, and verse 17 is practically identical with 
iv. 2 (sin-offering). 


vi. 1-7. Guilt-offering for breach of trust towards members of the 
community. 

The cases of embezzlement, breach of trust, and misappropriation 
of property here enumerated strike one, at first sight, as matter 
for the criminal courts, as provided for by the early law-code, 
Exod, xxii. 1-14. The point of view adopted by the author 
appears to be that the guilty person makes voluntary confession 
of his offence without the intervention of the law (see on verse 5). 
It is important, however, to observe that mere restitution, even 
when accompanied by a public confession, is not sufficient. The 
majesty of the divine holiness must be vindicated by a guilt- 
offering, for in wronging his neighbour the offender has also 
broken faith with God, the supreme Guardian of morality. 

2. with his neighbour: a fellow-member of the theocratic 
community, a term almost confined to the Law of Holiness. 

bargain: better, as marg., pledge; property left as security 
for a loan or the like, 


60 LEVITICUS 6. 5-9. BP 


or the thing which he hath gotten by oppression, or the 
deposit which was committed to him, or the lost thing 


5 which he found, or any thing about which he hath sworn 


falsely ; he shall even restore it in full, and shall add the 
fifth part more thereto: unto him to whom it apper- 
taineth shall he give it, in the day of his being found 


6 guilty. And he shall bring his guilt offering unto the 


7 


8 


Lorb, a ram without blemish out of the flock, according 
to thy estimation, for a guilt offering, unto the priest: 
and the priest shall make atonement for him before the 
Lorp, and he shall be forgiven ; concerning whatsoever 
he doeth so as to be guilty thereby. 


2 And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Command 


9 Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt 


offering ¢ the burnt offering shall be » on the hearth upon 
* (Ch. vi. rin Heb.] » Or, on ats firewood 


5. in the day of his being found guilty: /i. ‘in the day of 
his guilt,’ i.e.. when he makes voluntary acknowledgement of his 


‘guilt, of; inthe day when he offers his guilt-offering. The R. V. 


rendering suggests unfairly the intervention of the authorities. 


B. vi. 8—vii. 38. SuppLemenTARY DrrecTIoNS FOR THE RITUAL 
OF SACRIFICE, ‘ADDRESSED TO THE PRIESTS. 


The ‘manual for worshippers’ is followed by ‘a manual for 
priests, edited afresh with several additions,’ but derived in the 
main from the same circle of priestly #6r6th as chs. i-iii. The 
order of treatment is the same as in the preceding chapters, 
except that ‘the Jaw of the sacrifice of peace offerings’ comes last 
(vii. 11 ff.). The characteristic introductory formula—‘ this is the 
law (‘6rah) of’—and the special colophon at the close are indica- 
tions that the original contents of this subdivision once formed an 
independent manual (see p. 37). 


(a) vi. 8-13, the law of the burnt-offering. This law has reference 
only to the ritual of the public burnt-offering, which was offered 
daily, morning and evening ; hence its later name, the ae. 
the perpetual (offering). See Exod. xxix. 38-42; Num. xxviii. 3-8, 

9. Aaron and his sons: the same editorial adaptation as in i. 5; 
note especially the change of persons in verses 14 f, below. 


; LEVITICUS 6. 10-16 P : 6x 


a the altar all night unto the morning; and the fire of the 
altar shall be kept burning thereon. And the priest shall 10 


ae 2 


put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall 
he put upon his flesh; and he shall take up the ashes 
whereto the fire hath consumed the burnt offering on the 
altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. And he 
shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, 


_ and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean 
_ place. And the fire upon the altar shall be kept burning 


thereon, it shall not go out; and the priest shall burn 
wood on it every morning: and he shall lay the burnt 


offering in order upon it, and shall burn thereon the fat of 


the peace offerings. Fire shall be kept burning upon the 


_ altar continually ; it shall not go out. 
And this is the law of the meal offering: the sons of 14 


Aaron shall offer it before the Lorp, before the altar. 
And he shall take up therefrom his handful, of the fine 
flour of the meal offering, and of the oil thereof, and all 
the frankincense which is upon the meal offering, and 
shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savour, as the 
memorial thereof, unto the Lorp. And that which is 


- left thereof shali Aaron and his sons eat: it shall be eaten 


without leaven in a holy place; in the court of the tent 








11. he shall put off his garments: cf. Ezek. xliv. 19, where 
the reason is given: ‘that (the priests) sanctify not the people 
with their garments.’ The garments worn by the officiating 
priests in the sanctuary were charged with a contagious ‘ holiness,’ 
and so became ‘a conducting vehicle of a spiritual electricity,’ 
dangerous to all unconsecrated persons. For this characteristic 
feature of primitive religious thought see Robertson Smith, 
Religion of the Semites, 2nd ed. (Rel, Sem.*), 446 ff. 


(b) 14-18, the law of the meal offering, supplementing the regu- 
lations for the private offerings in ch, ii, and having specially in 
view the daily meal-offering which accompanied the Zamid (Exod. 
Xxix, 41 f.). 


It 


12 


13 


15 


62 LEVITICUS 6. 17-26. PB 


17 of meeting they shall eat it. It shall not be baken with 
leaven. I have given it as their portion of my offerings 
made by fire; it is most holy, as the sin offering, and as 

18 the guilt offering. Every male among the children of 
Aaron shall eat of it, as a due for ever throughout your 
generations, from the offerings of the Lorp made by fire: 
whosoever toucheth them shall be holy. 

19 And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, This is the 

2° oblation of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer 
unto the Lorp in the day when he is anointed ; the tenth 
part of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering perpetually, 
half of it in the morning, and half thereof in the evening. 

21 On a * baking pan it shall be made with oil; when it is 
soaked, thou shalt bring it in: in ®baken pieces shalt 
thou offer the meal offering for a sweet savour unto the 

22 Lorp. And the anointed priest that shall be in his 
stead from among his sons shall offer it: by a statute for 

23 ever it shall be wholly burnt untothe Lorp, And every 
meal offering of the priest shall be wholly burnt: it shall 
not be eaten. 

24 And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 

?5 Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin 
offering: in the place where the burnt offering is killed 
shall the sin offering be killed before the Lorp: it is 

26 most holy. The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat 


* See ch. ii. 5. >The meaning of the Hebrew word 
is uncertain. ; 


18. whosoever toucheth them shall be holy: in modern phrase, 
‘shall be taboo,’ and his life forfeited, though doubtless a ransom 
was provided. The underlying idea is the same as in verse 11. 

19-23 deal with the special meal-offering which was presented 
every morning and evening by the High Priest, or at least at his 
expense (Josephus, Antig. III. x. 7). In verse 20 the words ‘in 
the day when he is anointed’ are a gloss due to a confusion of this 
meal-offering with that prescribed in viii. 26, ix. 4. 


LEVITICUS 6.!a7,—7. 1. | P 63 


it: in a holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the 
tent of meeting. ® Whatsoever shall touch the flesh 27 
thereof shall be holy: and when there is sprinkled of 
the blood thereof upon any garment, thou shalt wash 
that whereon it was sprinkled in a holy place. But the 28 
earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken: and 
if it be sodden in a brasen vessel, it shall be scoured, 
and rinsed in water. Every male among the priests shall 29 
eat thereof; it is most holy. And no sin offering, 30 
whereof any of the blood is brought into the tent of 
meeting to make atonement in the holy place, shall be 
eaten: it shall be burnt with fire. 

And this is the law of the guilt offering: it is most 7 


2 Or, Whosocver 





(e) 24-30, the law of the sin-offering, with special reference, 
however, to sin-offerings of the second grade, the flesh of which 
might be eaten by the priests (see above, p. 50). 

27. We should render probably, with LXX and R.V. margin : 
* Whosoever shali touch,’ &c., as in verse 18. Verses 27, 28 afford 
an illustration of the fundamental unity of the ideas underlying 
the antique conceptions of ‘ holiness’ and ‘uncleanness.’ The 
blood of the sin-offering, the most potent medium of expiation, is 
sacrosanct in the highest degree, yet its holiness is here and else- 
where treated as a stain that requires to be, and is capable of 
being, washed off. In the case of a porous earthen vessel, the 
infection was so great that it had to be destroyed. The Jews in 
our Lord’s day even spoke of the holy scriptures as ‘ defiling the 
hands,’ which had therefore to be washed after contact with a roll 
of the Law or other canonical book. Hag. ii. r2f. shows that 
the contagion of uncleanness was regarded as more powerful than 
the contagion of holiness. For the whole subject, see Robertson 
Smith, of. cit., and Lagrange, Etudes sur les Religions Semitiques, 
ch, iv: Sainteté et Impureté. 


(d) vii. 1-10, the law of the guilt-offering, containing the ritual 
instructions omitted from v. 14 ff. The ritual of the guilt-offering 
differs from that of the allied sin-offering chiefly in two respects. 
(2) The victim does not vary with the rank of the offender but is 
uniformly a ram (v. 15, vi. 6), the ‘ expiation ram’ of Num. v. 8; 
(2) similarly the manipulation of the blood agrees with that 


64 LEVITICUS 7. 2-10. P 


2holy. In the place where they kill the burnt offering 
shall they kill the guilt offering: and the blood thereof 
3 shall he sprinkle upon the altar round about. And he 
shall offer of it all the fat thereof; the fat tail, and the 
4 fat that covereth the inwards, and the two kidneys, and 
the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the 
caul upon the liver, ® with the kidneys, shall he take 
5 away: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar for 
an offering made by fire unto the Lorp: it is a guilt 
6 offering. Every male among the priests shall eat thereof: 
7 it shall be eaten in a holy place; it is most holy. As is 
the sin offering, so is the guilt offering: there is one law 
for them: the priest that maketh atonement therewith, 
8 he shall have it. And the priest that offereth any man’s 
burnt offering, even the priest shall have to himself the 
9 skin of the burnt offering which he hath offered. And 
every meal offering that is baken in the oven, and all 
that is dressed in the frying pan, and on the » baking 
xo pan, shall be the priest’s that offereth it. And every 
meal offering, mingled with oil, or dry shall all the sons 
of Aaron have, one as well as another. 
* See ch. iii. 4. 


prescribed for the older sacrifices—‘ sprinkle upon’ in vii. 2 
should be ‘dash against’ (see on i. 5)—as compared with the 
more intense and complicated blood-rite of the sin-offering. As 
regards the disposal of the flesh, the guilt-offering agrees with the 
sin-offerings of the second grade. In both cases it is ‘most holy.’ 
For verses 3f. sce the notes on iii. 9 f. 

7-10. An appendix regulating the priest’s share in the several 
offerings (cf. verses 31-34). 


(e) 11-21, 28-36, The law of the peace-offering, or sacrifice of re- 
quital (see p. 44). Its contents are now split into two sections 
by the intrusion of verses 22-27. Important is the information 
here given as to the various kinds of recompense offerings, viz. the 
thank-offering properly so called, the votive offering, and the free- 
will offering. 


LEVITICUS 7: 11-16. P 65 


And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, 
which one shall offer unto the Lorp. If he offer it for 
a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of 
thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and 
unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled 
with oil, of fine flour soaked. With cakes of leavened 
bread he shall offer his oblation with the sacrifice of his 
peace offerings for thanksgiving. And of it he shall offer 
one out of each oblation for an heave offering unto the 
Lorp ; it shall be the priest’s that sprinkleth the blood 
of the peace offerings. And the flesh of the sacrifice of 
his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the 
day of his oblation ; he shall not leave any of it until 
the morning. But if the sacrifice of his oblation be a 





12. for a thanksgiving: /i/. ‘for a thank-offering’ ; it is the 
sacrifice of thanksgiving’ of xxii. eg and Amos iv. 5 (cf. Ps. lvi. r2, 
R.V.). The regulations deal first with the accompanying cereal 
oblation, and then with the disposal of the flesh. 

14. for an heave offering: an unfortunate rendering, sug- 
gestive of heaving or throwing, whereas the original, /eviimah, 
denotes something ‘lifted off’ from a large whole, and dedicated 
either to God directly, or to His representatives the priests. 
Here it is applied to the priest's Share of the cereal offering 
which accompanied the thank-offering ; in verse 32, to ‘ the right 
thigh’ of the sacrificial victim which likewise fell to the priest. 
Accordingly, ‘as an oblation to the Lorn,’ ‘as a selected portion,’ 
‘as a contribution,’ have all been recently suggested as renderings 
here (cf. verse 34). 

15. The position of the thank-offering proper at the head of the 
several varieties of recompense offerings is shown by the special 
precaution taken to guard against the flesh becoming putrid. It 
had to be eaten on the day on which it was offered; compare the 
early law, Exod. xxiii. 18, and contrast the laxer provisions in the 
verses here following. See also on xix. 5 ff., xxii. 17 ff., 20 f. 

16. ifthe sacrifice... be avow: rather, ‘bea votive offering’, 
i.e. a sacrifice in fulfilment of a vow. For this sacrifice in early 
times, see Judges xi. 30, 34 ff. (Jephthah), and 2 Sam. xv. 7, 12 
(Absalom). Special legislation on the important subject of vows 
is found in xxvii. 1-13 below, and Num. xxx, 1-16. The freewill 
offering, named along with ‘vows’ also Lev, xxii. 18 ff, Deut. 


F 


It 
12 


=~ 


3 


— 


4 


66 ‘LEVITICUS 7. 17-21. BP 


vow, or a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day 
that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow that 
1y which remaineth of it shall be eaten: but that which 
remaineth of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day 
18 shall be burnt with fire. And if any of the flesh of the 
sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten on the third day, 
it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto 
him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the 
19 soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity. And the 
flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten ; 
it shall be burnt with fire. And as for the flesh, every 
20 one that is clean shall eat thereof: but the soul that 
eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that 
pertain unto the Lorp, having his uncleanness upon 
him, that soul shall be cut off from his people. And 
when any one shall touch any unclean thing, the unclean- 
ness of man, or an unclean beast, or any unclean abomi- 
nation, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace 
offerings, which pertain unto the Lorp, that soul shall 
be cut off from his people. 


2 


_ 


xii. 6, was a spontaneous expression of the worshipper’s gratitude 
to the Giver of all. For it alone were blemished victims accepted 
(Lev. xxii. 23). 

18. an abomination: the original (piggil) is a technical term 
for putrid sacrificial flesh. ‘Abomination,’ as applied to unclean 
creatures in verse 21, xi. 11 ff. and elsewhere, represents an 
entirely different word in the original. 

19 f. The sacrificial meal was so essential a part of the rite of 
sacrifice that only those ceremonially clean could be allowed to 
share in it. The penalty for a breach of this fundamental principle 
of worship, which is common to all early religions, is expressed by 
the words 

20. that soul shall be cut off from his people: more precisely, 
‘from his kinsfolk.’ It has been much discussed whether death 
or excommunication is the penalty intended by this characteristic 
expression of P (see the ingenious presentation of the case by 
Gunkel, quoted by G. B. Gray, Commentary on Num, ix, 13). 


} LEVITICUS 7. 22-29. P ~ 67 


_ And’the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
the children of Israel, saying, Ye shall eat no fat, of ox, 






itself, and the fat of that which is torn of beasts, may be 
used for any other service: but ye shall inno wise eat 
of it. For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, of 
which men offer an offering made by fire unto the Lorp, 
even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his 
people. And ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether 
it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings. 
_ Whosoever it be that eateth any blood, that soul shall be 
cut off from his people. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
the children of Israel, saying, He that offereth the 
sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the Lorp shall 
bring his oblation unto the Lorp out of the sacrifice 


~~ 


_ 


- Ja 8 





The milder penalty is the more probable, for the use of the term 
*from his kinsfolk’ suggests that the phrase is a survival of tribal 
_ jurisprudence, according to which, as among the Bedouin Arabs 
of the present day’, a sentence of outlawry was the penalty for 
certain heinous offences (cf. the case cf Cain, Gen. iv. 14, and the 
_ Code of Hammurabi, sects. 154, 158). The authors of the Priests’ 
Code doubtless regarded the offender as handed over to ‘the 

_ judgement of God.’ 
22-27, an intrusive and later section expanding the general 


prohibition of fat and blood given in iii.17. The fat ‘of the 


omentum and the organs that lie in and near it,’ which ‘accord- 
_ ing to Semitic ideas were a not less important seat of life* than 
the blood itself (see W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem.*, 379 f.), is 
here associated with the blood as a food taboo. As distinguished 
from blood, however, which was universally interdicted, the fat 
taboo was restricted to animals actually offered in sacrifice. It 
does not apply, besides, to the muscular fat of any class of clean 
animal. For the highly technical distinction in verse 24 see on 
_ xvii. 15. 


28-36. The ritual of the peace-offering is here resumed in con- 





- ¥ Jaussen, Coutumes des Arabes (1908), 226 ff.; Musil, Aravdia 
Petr@a (1908), iii. 60, 335- 
F2 


22 


22 


2 


“or sheep, or goat. And the fat of that which dieth of 24 


25 


26 


68 LEVITICUS 7. 30634. © 


30 of his peace offerings: his own hands shall bring the 
offerings of the Lorp made by fire; the fat with the 
breast shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for 

31 a wave offering before the Lorp. And the priest shall 
burn the fat upon the altar: but the breast shall be 

32 Aaron’s and his sons’. And the right @thigh shall ye 
give unto the priest for an heave offering out of the 

33 Sacrifices of your peace offerings. He among the sons 
of Aaron, that offereth the blood of the peace offerings, 
and the fat, shall have the right *thigh for a portion. 

34 For the wave breast and the heave *thigh have I taken 
of the children of Israel out of the sacrifices of their 
peace offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the 
priest and unto his sons as a due for ever from the 
children of Israel. ; 


* Or, shoulder 


tinuation of verse 21. The section deals with the portions of the 
sacrificial victim falling to the officiating priest. The important 
and intricate subject of the priests’ dues from this source is dealt 
with in several parts of the Pentateuchal legislation. A study of 
these reveals a gradual increase in the amount of the priestly per- 
quisites. In the early period represented by 1 Sam. ii. 13-16, 
‘what was due to the priest from the people’ was apparently left 
to the worshipper’s discretion (see Cent. Bible in loc.). Deut. xviii. 3 
assigns to the priest ‘the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the 
maw.’ In this section the priests’ dues are stated to be the more 
valuable breast and right thigh or hind quarter (so x. 14 f_, Exod. 
xxix. 27 f.). On this discrepancy see the discussion by Driver, 
Deuteronomy, p. 215 f. The corresponding dues exacted by the 
Babylonian priesthood are discussed by Haupt in the Journ. of 
Bib. Literature, xix. 59 f., 75. See further on Num. xviii. 8 ff. 

30. waved for a wave offering: the original term (/enuphah) 
denotes a movement to and fro, the priest taking up the breast and 
‘waving’ if to and fro in the direction of the altar, thus symbolizing 
its presentation to God and His return of it to His representative. 

34. wave breast... heave thigh: ‘the breast that is waved 
and the thigh that is set apart’ (Addis). For the latter see 
verse I4. 


LEVITICUS 7. 35-8. 2. P 69 


This is the ®anointing-portion of Aaron, and the 35 


anointing-portion of his sons, out of the offerings of 
the Lorp made by fire, in the day when he presented 
them to minister unto the Lorp in the priest’s office ; 


which the Lorp commanded to be given them of the 36 


children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them. 
It is a due for ever throughout their generations. This 
is the law of the burnt offering, of the meal offering, 
and of the sin offering, and of the guilt offering, and of 
the consecration, and of the sacrifice of peace offerings ; 
which the Lorp commanded Moses in mount Sinai, in 
the day that he commanded the children of Israel to 
offer their oblations unto the Lorpb, in the wilderness 
of Sinai. 


bAnd the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Take 
® Or, portion See Bx. xxix 


35. the anointing-portion (cf. A. V.) : on etymological grounds 
the rendering of the margin is alone admissible. Moreover, 
neither Aaron nor his sons have yet been anointed, a fact which 
compels us to regard the last clause of verse 36 as a later gloss 
(ef. vi. 20). 

37 f., originally the colophon of the present subdivision (vi. 8— 
vii. 36), not of chaps. i-vii as a whole. This is evident from the 
words ‘in mount Sinai’ as compared with ‘the tent of meeting’ 
in i.z. Note also the similarity of the introductory formulae, 
verse 37 and vi. 8, 14, &c., above referred to, and the identity of the 
order of the several entries, with the exception of the intrusive 
entry ‘and of the consecration’ which does not belong here. 


Second Division. Cuapters VIII-X. 


Tuer CoNSECRATION AND INSTALLATION OF THE AARONIC 
PRIESTHOOD. 


In these chapters we are brought back to the main stream of the 
priestly History of Israel’s Religious Institutions (P®). They 
record the carrying out of the divine instructions, given in Exod. 
xxix, regarding the installation of Aaron and his sons as the only 


legitimate priests of the wilderness sanctuary. This restriction of 


37 


38 


82 


pee Oe 
40 LEVITICUS 8 37 PB 


Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and 
the anointing oil, and the bullock of the sin offering, 
and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread ; 
3 and assemble thou all the congregation at the door 
4 of the tent of meeting. And Moses did as the Lorp 
commanded him; and the congregation was assembled 
5 at the door of the tent of meeting. And Moses said 
unto the congregation, This is the thing which the Lorp 
6 hath commanded to be done. And Moses brought 
, Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water. And 
he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the 
girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod 
upon him, and he girded him with the cunningly woven 
band of the ephod, and bound it unto him therewith. 


the priestly office to an exclusive hereditary caste represents tlie 
final stage in the history of priesthood in Israel. 

Chs. viii-x seem, on the whole, as has been said, to have formed 
part of the groundwork of the Priests’ Code (PS). In several 
passages, however, where the ritual is more elaborate, the work 
of later hands may be detected (see the notes below). The 
sections correspond to the several chapters. 

(a) viii. Consecration of Aaron and his sons. 

The consecration of the future High Priest—the most prominent 
element in the narrative—was accomplished in three stages: 
(1) the washing; (2) the vesting; €3) the special consecration 
rite, consisting of the following ‘actions’: the anointing or 
‘sacring’ of the High Priest, the consecration of his person by 
a peculiar blood-rite, and finally (in the present text) the sprinkling 
of himself and his garments with, probably, a mixture of oil and 
blood —all accompanied by the offering of prescribed sacrifices, 
a sin-offering, a burnt-offering, and a special consecration offering. 

2. See Exod. xxix, the notes on which in Bennett, Cent. Bibi, 
should be consulted throughout. 

7-9. The vesting of Aaron with the robes of his office. For the 
several items, see op. cif. on Exod. xxviii. The presence should 
be noted of two of the insignia of kingship in antiquity, the purple 
robe (meé‘il), for which a new identification will be found in the 
writer’s art. ‘Dress’ in Hastings’s DB, 1909), and the ‘holy crown’ 
or diadem. The High Priest combines in his person the civil as 


LEVITICUS 8. 8-16. P at 


And he placed the breastplate upon him: and in the g 
breastplate he put *the Urim and the Thummim. And 9 
he set the } mitre upon his head ; and upon the ? mitre, 
in front, did he set the golden plate, the holy crown; as 


the Lorp commanded Moses. And Moses took the to 


anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that 


was therein, and sanctified them. And he sprinkled 11 


thereof upon the altar seven times, and anointed the 
altar and all its vessels, and the laver and its base, to 
sanctify them. And he poured of the anointing oil 1 
upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him. 


And Moses brought Aaron’s sons, and clothed them 13 


with coats, and girded them with girdles, and bound 
headtires upon them; as the Lorp commanded Moses. 


And he brought the bullock of the sin offering: and 14 


Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of 
the bullock of the sin offering. And he slew it; and1 
Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the 
altar round about with his finger, and purified the altar, 
and poured out the blood at the base of the altar, and 


x 


9) 


sanctified it, to make atonement for it. And he took all 16 


* That is, the Lights and the Perfections. » Or, /urban 





well as the religious headship of the theocratic community. The 
anointing, a rite in the earlier literature associated only with 
kings, is to be viewed in the same light. 

8 f. See the corresponding arts. in Hastings’s DB. 

10. The first clause of this verse was originally part of verse 12, 
the intervening words being an insertion which interrupts the 
ceremony and is without warrant in Exod. xxix. 

13. Neither here nor in Exod. xxix is there any mention of the 
anointing of Aaron’s sons, the ordinary priests. See on iv. 3. 

215. Comparison with Exod. xxix. 12 shows that the latter half 
of this verse has received considerable and inappropriate additions, 
Note that the blood of the High Priest’s sin-offering is applied as 
prescribed by Exod., Joc. cit., as compared with the more intense 
application required by iv. 6; cf. note on iv, 25- 


ieee oa 


42 LEVITICUS 8. 17-24, P 


the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul of the 
liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and Moses 
17 burned it upon the altar. But the bullock, and its skin, 
and its flesh, and its dung, he burnt with fire without 
18 the camp; as the Lorp commanded Moses. And he 
presented the ram of the burnt offering: and Aaron and 
his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram. 
1g And he killed it: and Moses sprinkled the blood upon 
oo the altar round about. And he cut the ram into its 
pieces ; and Moses burnt the head, and the pieces, and 
ax the fat. And he washed the inwards and the legs with 
water ; and Moses burnt the whole ram upon the altar: 
it was a burnt offering for a sweet savour: it was an 
offering made by fire unto the Lorp; as the Lorp 
22 commanded Moses. And he presented the other ram, 
the ram of consecration: and Aaron and his sons laid 
23 their hands upon the head of the ram. And he slew it ; 
and Moses took of the blood thereof, and put it upon 
the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and upon the thumb of his 
right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot. 
24 And he brought Aaron’s sons, and Moses put of the 
blood upon the tip of their right ear, and upon the 
thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of 
their right foot: and Moses sprinkled the blood upon 


22. the ram of consecration: rather, ‘of installation’; see 
note on verse 33. 

28 f. Further consecration of Aaron and his sons by a graphic 
symbolic action, the anointing of the extremities with the sacrificial 
blood to represent the consecration of the whole body. This 
explanation suits the only other instance of this blood-rite, xiv. 
14, 25, and is to be preferred to that which lays stress on the 
parts anointed, ear, hand, foot. Thus Dillman says: ‘the priest 
must have consecrated ears to hear always God’s holy voice, con- 
secrated hands at all times to do holy works, and consecrated feet 
to walk evermore in holy ways.’ 





LEVITICUS @.' a5-37.)°R -, 73 


_ the altar round about. And he took the fat, and the 
fat tail, and all the fat that was upon the inwards, and 
the caul of the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, 
and the right *thigh : and out of the basket of unleavened 
bread, that was before the Lorn, he took one unleavened 
cake, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, and 
placed them on the fat, and upon the right thigh: and 
he put the whole upon the hands of Aaron, and upon 
the hands of his sons, and waved them for a wave 
offering before the Lorp. And Moses took them from 
off their hands, and burnt them on the altar upon the 
burnt offering: they were a consecration for a sweet 
savour: it was an offering made by fire unto the Lorp. 
And Moses took the breast, and waved it for a wave 
offering before the Lorp: it was Moses’ portion of the 
ram of consecration; as the Lorp commanded Moses. 
And Moses took of the anointing oil, and of the blood 


_ which was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, 


upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon his 
sons’ garments with him; and sanctified Aaron, his 
garments, and his sons, and his sons’ garments with him. 
And Moses said unto Aaron and to his sons, Boil the 
flesh at the door of the tent of meeting: and there eat 
it and the bread that is in the basket of consecration, 
bas I commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat 


® Or, shoulder > The Sept., Onkelos and Syr. read, as 
Iam commanded, See ver. 35, ch. x. 13. 


25 f. See on iii. 3 f. and ii. 4 ff. respectively. 

29. it was Moses’ portion: in virtue of his being, on this 
occasion, the officiating priest. 

30. Most recent critics regard this third ‘action’ as a later 
addition. 

31. Read as im the margin, and as in verse 35. 


25 


a7 


28 


= 


3° 


3I 


74 LEVITICUS 8.32—9. 4. P 


32 it. And that which remaineth of the flesh and of the 
33 bread shall ye burn with fire. And ye shall not go out 
from the door of the tent of meeting seven days, until 
the days of your consecration be fulfilled: for he shall 
34 * consecrate you seven days. As hath been done this 
day, so the Lorp hath commanded to do, to make 
35 atonement for you. And at the door of the tent of 
meeting shall ye abide day and night seven days, and 
keep the charge of the Lorp, that ye die not: for so 
36 1am commanded. And Aaron and his sons did all the 
things which the Lorp commanded by the hand of 
Moses. 
9g And it came to pass on the eighth day, that Moses 
2 called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel; and 
he said unto Aaron, Take thee a bull calf for a sin 
offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, 
3 and offer them before the Lorp. And unto the children 
of Israel thou shalt speak, saying, Take ye a he-goat for 
a sin offering; and a calf and a lamb, both of the first 
4 year, without blemish, for a burnt offering; and an ox 
2 Heb. fill your hand. 





33. he shall SREERIER you seven days: Jit, ‘ your hand shall 
be filled for seven days’ ; i.e. the installation ceremony is to extend 
over this period, the ee being probably repeated each day. 
The origin of the expression ‘to fill the hand,’ used here and 
elsewhere for ‘to instal one in an office,’ is uncertain. It may 
have been borrowed from the similar Babylonian phrase. 


(6) ix. Aaron and his sons enter upon their office. 

On the expiry of the period above referred to, Aaron and his 
sons enter solemnly upon their office as priests of Yahweh. 
Assisted by his sons, the new High Priest first offers the sacrifices 
prescribed for himself and his house, and thereafter those for the 
whole congregation. It is characteristic of the author of P£ to 
embody his legislation in concrete examples as historical pre- 
cedenis for the future. In this chapter, accordingly, we have 
a condensed ritual of sacrifice—all the principal varieties except 
the guilt-offering being represented, e 


LEVITICUS 9. 4)/UP ne 


anda ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the 
Lorp ; and a meal offering mingled with oil: for to-day 
the Lorp appeareth unto you. And they brought that 5 
which Moses commanded before the tent of meeting: 
and all the congregation drew near and stood before the 
Lorp. And Moses said, This is the thing which the 6 
Lorp commanded that ye should do: and the glory of 
the Lorp shall appear unto you. And Moses said unto 7 
Aaron, Draw near unto the altar, and offer thy sin offer- 
ing, and thy burnt offering, and make atonement for 
thyself, and for the people: and offer the oblation of the 
people, and make atonement for them; as the Lorp 
commanded. So Aaron drew near unto the altar, and 8 
slew the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. 
And the sons of Aaron presented the blood unto him: 9 
and he dipped his finger in the blood, and put it upon 
the horns or the altar, and poured out the blood at the 
base of the altar: but the fat, and the kidneys, and the 10 
caul from the liver of the sin offering, he burnt upon the 
altar ; as the Lorp commanded Moses. And the flesh !! 
and the skin he burnt with fire without the camp. And 
he slew the burnt offering ; and Aaron’s sons delivered 
unto him the blood, and he sprinkled it upon the altar 
round about. And they delivered the burnt offering 13 
unto him, piece by piece, and the head: and he burnt 
them upon the altar. And he washed the inwards and ‘+4 





G. the glory of the LORD: a manifestation of the Deity 
likened in Exod, xxiv. 17 to the appearance of a ‘devouring; fire.’ 
See the art. ‘Glory,’ by G. B. Gray, in Hastings’s DB., ii; cf. 
Kautzsch, ibid., v. 639 f. 

7-14. The sacrifices, a sin-offering and a burnt-offering, for the 
priesthood. For ‘and for the people’ read with LXX, ‘and for 
thy house,’ as the context requires. 

9. the altar: here, as always in the oldest stratum of P, the 
altar of burnt-offering. 


76 LEVITICUS 9. 15-23. BP 


the legs, and burnt them upon the burnt offering on the 
15 altar. And he presented the people’s oblation, and took 
the goat of the sin offering which was for the people, 
16 and slew it, and offered it for sin, as the first. And he 
presented the burnt offering, and offered it according 
17 to the ordinance. And he presented the meal. offering, 
and filled his hand therefrom, and burnt it upon the 
18 altar, besides the burnt offering of the morning. He 
slew also the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of peace 
offerings, which was for the people: and Aaron’s sons 
delivered unto him the blood, and he sprinkled it upon 
1g the altar round about, and the fat of the ox; and of the 
ram, the fat tail, and that which covereth #He inwards, 
20 and the kidneys, and the caul of the liver: and they put 
the fat upon the breasts, and he burnt the fat upon the 
21 altar: and the breasts and the right thigh Aaron waved 
for a wave offering before the Lorp; as Moses com- 
22 manded. And Aaron lifted up his hands toward the 
people, and blessed them; and he came down from 
offering the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and the 
23 peace Offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the 
tent of meeting, and came out, and blessed the people: 


15-21. The priests, having offered sacrifices of expiation and 
worship on their own behalf, now proceed to offer on behalf of the 
people the sacrifice for the removal of the barrier which their sins 
have raised between them and a holy God, and thereafter those by 
which their covenant relation to Him is renewed. 

15. as the first: i.e. in the same manner as his (Aaron’s) own 
sin-offering. The last clause of verse 17 is regarded by Kautzsch 
as ‘an unintelligible gloss.’ 

21. and the right thigh: this was a ‘heave,’ not a ‘ wave,’ 
offering ; see vii. 32. The words have been inserted under the 
influence of vii. 34; so also in x. 14 f. 

22f. The people twice receive the priestly benediction (Num. vi. 
24-26), first from Aaron alone at the close of the sacrificial service, 
and again from Moses and Aaron jointly. 


LEVITICUS 9. 24—10. 3. P "7 


and the glory of the Lorp appeared unto all the people. 
And there came forth fire from before the Lorp, and 24 
consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat : 
and when all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on 
their faces, 

And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took each 10 
of them his censer, and put fire therein, and laid incense 
thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lorp, which 
he had not commanded them. And there came forth 2 
fire from before the Lorn, and devoured them, and they 
died before the Lorp. Then Moses said unto Aaron, 3 
This is it that the Lorp spake, saying, I will be sanctified 





24. In view of the sacrifices already offered, the text can 
scarcely mean that the altar fire was first kindled by fire issuing 
from the Tabernacle, as in the cases recorded in Judges vi. 21, 
1 Kings xviii. 38, but rather that the portions of sacrificial flesh 
still upon the altar-hearth were suddenly consumed by the divine 
fire. The people ‘ shouted’ for joy, seeing in this incident a sure 
sign of Yahweh’s acceptance of their offerings. 


(c) x. The death of Nadab and Abihu, with sundry regulations for 
the priests. 

For a breach of the sacrificial ritual the two elder sons of Aaron 
(Exod, vi. 23) are punished by death (1-5). P here incorporates 
a tradition current in priestly circles, which emphasizes a principle 
common to all ancient rituals, viz. the need for the most rigid 
observance of the prescribed rules ; it further explains the absence 
from the legitimate priesthood of descendants of the elder branches 
of the Aaronic family (cf. Num. iii. 4). The original continuation 
of verses 1-5 is found in 12-15. To these sections others of 
various content and date have been added by later hands. Ch. xvi, 
in its original form, must once have followed closely on this 
chapter. 

1. As in xvi. 12 f., the incense is offered in a censer, a large 
metal spoon holding live charcoal on which the incense was 
burned. The special altar of incense appears only in the secondary 
strata of P, as Exod. xxx; cf. notes on xvi. 18, Num. iv. 11. 

strange fire: the charcoal, it may be conjectured, had not 
been taken, as prescribed, from the hearth of the consecrated 
altar of burnt-offering (xvi. 13); cf. ‘strange incense’ (Exod. xxx. 
9), and ‘strange worship,’ the late Heb. equivalent of * idolatry.’ 


4 


48 LEVITICUS 10. 4-10. P 


in them that *come nigh me, and before all the people 
I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. And 
Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel 
the uncle of Aaron, and said unto them, Draw near, 
carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the 


5camp. So they drew near, and carried them in their 


6 


7 


8 


coats out of the camp; as Moses had said. And Moses 
said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, 
his sons, » Let not the hair of your heads go loose, neither 
rend your clothes ; that ye die not, and that he be not 
wroth with all the congregation: but let your brethren, 
the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the 
Lorp hath kindled. And ye shall not go out from the 
door of the tent of meeting, lest ye die: for the anointing 
oil of the Lorp is upon you. And they did according 
to the word of Moses. 


And the Lorp spake unto Aaron, saying, Drink no 


9 wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, 


fe) 


when ye go into the tent of meeting, that ye die not: 
it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations : 


and ¢that ye may put difference between the holy and 
2 Or, are nigh > Some ancient versions 
render, Uncover not your heads. © Or, ye shall 








6 f. A later hand—note the assumption that the ordinary priests 
were also anointed—has here extended to the rank and file of 
the priesthood the prohibition of certain mourning rites, which in 
xxi, 10 ff. are prescribed only for the High Priest. 

8f. Reinforcement of Ezekiel’s demand for abstinence, xliv. ar; = 
the prohibition applies only to the period when the priests are 
on duty. 

10f. The function of the Hebrew priest as the instructor 
(giver of torah, ‘ direction *) of the people on points of ceremonial 
observance is older historically than his exclusive right to serve 
at the altar. The twofold dichotomy here referred to (ef. Ezek. 
Xxii. 26, xliv. 23) is of the first importance for the understanding 
of almost all primitive religions, and not least of the ceremonial 


; 


4 LEVITICUS 10. tr-15.. P 79 


“the common, and between the unclean and the clean; 
and *that ye may teach the children of Israel all the 
 statutes.which the Lorp hath spoken unto them by the 
_ hand of Moses. : 
_ And Moses spake unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and 
! unto Ithamar, his sons that were left, Take the meal 
_ offering that remaineth of the offerings of the Lorp 
made by fire, and eat it without leaven beside the altar: 
for it is most holy: and ye shall eat it in a holy place, 
_ because it is thy due, and thy sons’ due, of the offerings 
of the Lorp made by fire: for so I am commanded. 
_ And the wave breast and the heave thigh shall ye eat in 
_a clean place; thou, and thy sons, and thy daughters 
with thee: for they are given as thy due, and thy sons’ 
due, out of the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the 
_ children of Israel. The heave thigh and the wave breast 


shall they bring with the offerings made by fire of the 
® Or, ye shall 





institutions of the Hebrews. Of the first pair of mutually exclusive 
spheres ‘the common’ comprises all such things as men may 
freely use without fear of supernatural penalties; ‘the holy’ 
comprises things of which, in virtue of their connexion with a 
_ supernatural power or influence, the use is restricted, or altogether 
forbidden, to men; in other words, things which are temporarily 
or permanently ‘taboo.’ Holiness, in short, in its primitive sense 
is non-moral, being ‘ essentially a restriction on the licence of man 
_ in the use of natural things . . . enforced by dread of supernatural 
penalties’ (Rel. Senz.?, 152 ff., and Additional Note, 446 ff., 
_ Holiness, Uncleanness, and Taboo’). For the kindred dichotomy, 

‘the clean’ and ‘the unclean,’ or ‘the pure’ and ‘the impure,’ 
_ see the introductory remarks to the following chapter. 
_ 12-15. Directions based, according to P’s manner, on a con- 
_ crete instance as a precedent, regarding the consumption of the 
_ priest’s share in the meal- and peace-offerings. We have already 
_ met with the later and more detailed instructions in vi. 16, vii. 31 ff. 
For the distinction between ‘holy’ and ‘most holy’ in this 
_ connexion, see on ii. 3. 
> 15. The first three words are to be deleted ; note the singular 
"pronoun, ‘to wave it,’ with reference to the wave breast only. 


——- © 


a 


3 





Ir 


_ 


3 


80 LEVITICUS 10. 16-20. P 


fat, to wave it for a wave offering before the Lorp: and 
it shall be thine, and thy sons’ with thee, as a due for 
ever; as the Lorp hath commanded. 

16 And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin 
offering, and, behold, it was burnt: and he was angry 
with Eleazar and with Ithamar, the sons of Aaron that 

17 were left, saying, Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin 
offering in the place of the sanctuary, seeing it is most 
holy, and he hath given it you *to bear the iniquity of 
the congregation, to make atonement for them before 

18 the Lorp? Behold, the blood of it was not brought 
into the sanctuary within: ye should certainly have eaten 

Ig it in the sanctuary, as I commanded. And Aaron spake 
unto Moses, Behold, this day have they offered their sin 
offering and their burnt offering before the Lorp; and 
there have befallen me such things as these: and if 
I had eaten the sin offering to-day, would it have been 

20 Well-pleasing in the sight of the Lorp? And when 
Moses heard ¢haz, it was well-pleasing in his sight. 

* Or, /o take away 





16-20. A late and perplexing section, the most probable 
explanation of which is to be sought in the gradual development 
of the ritual of the sin-offering. According to the later formulation 
of the rite, only when the blood had been ‘brought into the tent 
of meeting’ was the flesh of the sin-offering to be burnt (vi. 30; 
cf. iv. 16 f.), In the case before us, based on the earlier practice, 
this had not been done; the flesh, therefore, should have been 
eaten by the priests, as Moses expected (verses 17 f.). Aaron 
excuses himself—and Moses is represented as accepting the 
excuse as valid—on the ground of the calamity that had just before 
overtaken his house in the death of his sons. In reality, we have 
here an interesting proof that the discrepancies in the ritual of 
sacrifice were recognized by the post-exilic priesthood, and that 
attempts, not without their parallels even at the present day, were 
made to explain them away. 


LEVITICUS 11-16 81 


a 
R Third Division.—CuaptTers XI-XVI. 


. Laws RELATING TO UNCLEANNESS AND PURIFICATION, INCLUDING 
THE SPECIAL Rites oF THE Day or ATONEMENT. 


_ One of the oldest and most important functions of the Hebrew 
priesthood was, as we have seen, to ‘ put difference between the 
holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean’ 
(x. to f,, where see note). This ‘ difference’ is the main subject 
of the following chapters, in which ‘ the subject of sacrifice, with 
which the priesthood is first concerned (chs. i-x), now makes 
way for the treatment of uncleanness and purification under four 
heads : animals, xi; childbirth, xii; leprosy, xiii-xiv; issues, xv’ 
(C.—H. Hex. ii. 153). As has been already indicated, ch. xvi 
in its original form is the natural continuation of ch. x, so that 
chs. xi-xv are now regarded as forming, like chs. i-vii, a separate 
collection of /6rdth, originally independent of the historical 

groundwork P%, 
As regards the subject-matter of this division of Leviticus, it has 
been truly said that ‘among the varied religious acts of man 
there is probably none that has been so widely prevalent through- 
out the different races of mankind as the ritual of purification, 
nor does any idea seem to have possessed so strong a legislative 
power in the various departments of our life as the concept of 
purity’ (L. R. Farnell, The Evolution of Religion, p. 88)'. 
The chapters we are about to study represent a relatively late 
formulation—the final development is found in the Mishna, 
- especially in the treatises comprised in its sixth and last division— 
of practices which in essentials are as old as the Hebrew race 
itself. The underlying conceptions, indeed, as the results of 
comparative anthropology and comparative religion have abun- 
dantly proved, go back to the very beginnings of religious 
development. All over the world it has been found that to 
primitive thought certain objects and certain conditions and 
functions of the body are regarded as mysterious, ‘uncanny,’ 
and ‘not to be lightly handled or approached.’ Under a deve- 
oped animism the uncanniness and danger of these objects and 
States, such as blood, sexual intercourse, childbirth, a corpse, &c., 
SN Ou rw iq 
1 There could be no better introduction to the study of the follow- 
ing chapters from the point of view of the evolution of religious 
thought and practice than the suggestive essay of which the above is 
the opening sentence. Its full title runs: ‘The Ritual of Purification 
and the Conception of Purity: their Influence on Religion, Morality, 
and Social Custom.’ A shorter study will be found in the excellent 
“article ‘Clean und Unclean,’ by A. W. F. Blunt, in Hastings’s D&. 

(1909). 

; G 


82 LEVITICUS: tf3in0 


11 And the Lorp spake unto Moses and to Aaron, 


are explained as due to the presence of malignant spirits which 
have to be removed by rites of purgation and purification. Water 
and fire are everywhere regarded as the two most powerful 
cathartic media. A third stage is reached when these primitive 
conceptions of taboo are adjusted to the pica 4 of the higher 
religions. Uncleanness is now viewed primarily as a@ state or 
condition which excludes from the worship of the deity, From being 
a quality scarcely distinguishable from holiness, uncleanness 
becomes a summary description of everything that is opposed 
thereto ; in Hebrew thought it is, before all, the condition which 
offends and injures the holiness of Yahweh. Hence the charac- 
teristic motive for the observance of the Levitical legislation on 
the subject: a holy God can only be worshipped by a holy 
people ; only a holy people can live in harmonious relations with 
a holy God (xi. 44, and often in xvii-xxvi). 

On the whole subject see the epoch-making exposition by 
Robertson Smith, Rel. Sem.” (cf. note on x. 10), also Lagrange 
as cited on vi. 27 f. An exhaustive bibliography is given in 
Harper, Zhe Priestly Element in the O. T., pp. 126-8, 284. 


(a) xi. Laws relating chiefly to clean and unclean animals. 

Two distinct topics are treated in this chapter: (1) the distinction 
between clean and unclean as it affects food, and (2) the unclean- 
ness produced by contact with what is itself unclean. Since the 
colophon in verses 46, 47 refers only to the first of these topics, 
it seems clear that verses 24-40, which deal with the second, 
must have been added by a later hand (for further details of the 
literary analysis, see C.—H. Hex. ii. i loc,). Verses 43-45 so 
unmistakably contain the characteristic teaching of the Law of 
Holiness (H), chs. xvii-xxvi, that it is not improbable that the 
bulk of this chapter originally formed part of H, and may have 
come ultimately from the same early source as its striking parallel 
in Deut. xiv (see Driver, Deut. 157 ff., where the texts are given in 
parallel columns and the differences noted), The systematic 
grouping of both passages, however, is now regarded as a 
generalization from pre-existing practice. No agreement has yet 
been reached as to the original motive or motives which led to these 
restrictions. One thing at least is clear. All attempts to reduce 
the various taboos, whether among the Hebrews or elsewhere, to 
a single principle, be it primitive totemism or what not, are 
doomed to failure. It is almost certain that more than one 
principle has been at work. One of the best established of these 
is the principle that every animal that played a part in the cults 
of the heathen nations around, or to which popular superstition 
attributed demonic powers, was branded as unclean for the 


LEVITICUS 11. 2-6. P 83 


saying unto them, Speak unto the children of Israel, 2 
saying, These are the living things which ye shall eat 
among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever 3 
parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, axd *cheweth the 
cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless 4 
these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of 
them that part the hoof: the camel, because he * cheweth 
the cud but parteth not the hoof, he is unclean unto you. 
And the »coney, because he *cheweth the cud but 5 
parteth not the hoof, he is unclean unto you. And the 6 
hare, because she *cheweth the cud but parteth not the 


® Heb, bringeth up. 
> Heb. shaphan, the Hyvax Syriacus or rockbadger. 





Hebrews (see the instances collected by Bertholet, Leviticus, 
33 ff.). In the case of flesh-eating animals and birds of prey, 
whose food contained blood, the motive is equally obvious. 
Analogy or fancied resemblance doubtless played a considerable 
part ; this would account for the taboo of eels and scaleless fishes 
which resemble the universally abhorred serpent, the demonic 
creature par excellence. Probably the earliest attempt to find and 
expound moral and religious motives in these food taboos is that 
by the Alexandrian apologist known as the Pseudo-Aristeas in 
the second century B. c. (see Thackeray’s translation, /.Q.R., xv, 
19038, §§ 143-66). As in the case of sacrifice, the O. T. writers 
themselves nowhere offer a rationale of the several prohibitions. 
For them it is sufficient that Yahweh has so willed. The motive 
of this, as of all the laws relating to uncleanness, is the preservation 
of the ideal holiness of the people of Yahweh. The time had not 
yet come when Jews and Gentiles were to learn that ‘not that 
which entereth into the mouth defileth the man’ (Matt. xv. 11 ; 
cf. Mark vii. 15 ff., Acts x: 12-15). 


2-8. In the case of quadrupeds the clean group is distinguished 
by the presence in the same animal of two criteria, a completely 
cleft hoof and chewing the cud. If only one of these is present, 
as in the camel or the pig, the animal is unclean, Deut. xiv. q f. 
goes beyond the general definition here given, and names ten 
species of clean quadrupeds, 

5. the coney: see margin. Neither the rock-badger nor the 
hare, however, is a true ruminant; the popular notion that they 
chewed the cud was based on the characteristic movements of the 
upper lip. 

G2 


84 LEVITICUS 11. 7-19. P 


7 hoof, she is unclean unto you. And the swine, because 
he parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, but ® cheweth 
8 not the cud, he is unclean unto you. Of their flesh ye 
shall not eat, and their carcases ye shall not touch; they 
are unclean unto you. . f 
9. These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: what- 
soever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and 
1o in the rivers, them shall ye eat. And all that have not 
fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that 
move in the waters, and of all the living creatures that 
11 are in the waters, they are an abomination unto you, and 
they shall be an abomination unto you ; ye shall not eat 
of their flesh, and their carcases ye shall have in abomi- 
12 nation. Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, 
that is an abomination unto you. 
13 And these ye shall have in abomination among the 
fowls ; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination : 
14 the beagle, and the gier eagle, and the ospray; and the 
15 kite, and the falcon after its kind ; every raven after its 
15 kind; and the ostrich, and the «night hawk, and the 
17 seamew, and the hawk after its kind ; and the little owl, 
18 and the cormorant, and the great owl; and the “horned 
19 owl, and the pelican, and the vulture ; and the stork, the 
e heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat. 
® Heb. bringeth up. > Or, great vulture © Heb. tahmas, of 
uncertain meaning. 1Or, swan +: | © Or, this 


7. swine: the typical case of a taboo having its origin in the 
veneration in which an animal was held in forbidden cults (Isa. 
Ixv. 4, Ixvi. 3, 17; cf. Rel. Sem.*, index). 

9-12. The criterion of cleanness in fishes is the possession of 
both fins and scales. No single fish is mentioned by name in O.T. 

13-19. A list of unclean birds. Instead of general criteria, as 
in the two preceding groups, the various forbidden species are 
named individually. The identification of several of these is un- 
certain. More precise information must be sought in the larger 
Bible Dictionaries. Cf. margin throughout. 


4 
? 
; 


. 


Ly 


| 


. 


g 


LEVITICUS 11. 20-27., P 85 


All winged creeping things that go upon all four are 20 


an abomination unto you. Yet these may ye eat of all 21 


winged creeping things that go upon all four, which have 


legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth; even 22 
these of them ye may eat; the “locust after its kind, 
and the “bald locust after its kind, and the ® cricket 
after its kind, and the ® grasshopper after its kind. But 23 
all winged creeping things, which have four feet, are an 
abomination unto you. 

And by these ye shall become unclean: whosoever 24 
toucheth the carcase of them shall be unclean until the 
even: and whosoever beareth aught of the carcase of 25 
them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the 
even. Every beast which parteth the hoof, and is not 26 
clovenfooted, nor cheweth the cud, is unclean unto you: 
every one that toucheth them shall be unclean. And 27 


® Four kinds of locusts or grasshoppers, which are not certainly 


. known, 


26-23. ‘All winged creeping things,’ really winged insects, 
are to be an ‘abomination,’ i. e. taboo, with the exception of four 
named, but not certainly identified, species of the locust family. 
Locusts formed part of the food of John. the Baptist, and are still 
eaten by the Arabs: the head, legs, and wings are removed and 
the body fried in sam or clarified butter. 

24-40. An intrusive section (see above), dealing with the un- 
cleanness produced, not by eating, but by contact with the car- 
cases of certain animals. It falls into three parts: (1) 24-28, the 


_ uncleanness caused by unclean quadrupeds ; (2) 29-38, by ‘ creeping 
_ things’; (3) 39f., a special case of uncleanness arising from clean 


beasts. 

24. shall be unciean until the even: that is, he shall be 
incapable of taking part in the cultus, or of mixing with his 
fellows, until the close of the day on which he contracted the 
uncleanness. 

25. In the case of one carrying the carcase of an unclean beast, 


_ the infection is more intense, and must be removed by washing 


the clothes. The same procedure was required for removing the 
contagion of holiness (sce vi. 27 and note). 


86 LEVITICUS 11. 28-33. P 


whatsoever goeth upon its paws, among all beasts that 
go on all four, they are unclean unto you: whoso 
toucheth their carcase shall be unclean until the ,even. 
28 And he that beareth the carcase of them shall wash his 
clothes, and be unclean until the even: they are unclean 
unto you. 
29 And these are they which are unclean unto you among 
the creeping things that creep upon the earth ; the weasel, 
30 and the mouse, and the great lizard after its kind, and 
the *gecko, and the * land-crocodile, and the ® lizard, 
3r and the *sand-lizard, and the chameleon. ‘These are 
they which are unclean to you among all that creep: 
whosoever doth touch them, when they are dead, shall 
32 be unclean until the even. And upon whatsoever any 
of them, when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be 
unclean ; whether it be any vessel of wood, or raiment, 
or skin, or sack, whatsoever vessel it be, wherewith any 
work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be 
33 unclean until the even; then shall it be clean. And 
every earthen vessel, whereinto any of them falleth, what- 
soever is in it shall be unclean, and it ye shall break. 


® Words of uncertain meaning, but probably denoting four kinds 
of lizards. , 


27. whatsoever goeth upon its paws: ‘as dogs, cats, bears’ 
(Dillmann), Of these the cat was an object of spécial veneration 
in Egypt. 

29. the mouse appears in the forbidden cult described by 
Isa. Ixvi. 17. For the others see the Bible Dictionaries. 


32-38. In these verses one may note the beginnings of the 
extreme scrupulosity, not always devoid of casuistry, with 
which in later times every possible case was noted to which 
a general Pentateuchal law might apply. 

33. We have already seen, in vi. 28, that porous earthen vessels 
were more susceptible to infection than vessels of metal, wood, 
or leather. The same distinction is found in the purification rites 
of the Vendidad, 


LEVELICUS. 11, 34-40. ~P 87 


All food ¢hevein which may be eaten, that on which 34 
water cometh, shall be unclean: and all drink that may 
be drunk in every sch vessel shall be unclean, And 35 
every thing whereupon azy fart of their carcase falleth 
shall be unclean; whether oven, or “range for pots, it 
shall be broken in pieces: they are unclean, and shall 
be unclean unto you. Nevertheless a fountain or a ? pit 36 
wherein is a gathering of water shall be clean: but ¢ that 
which toucheth their carcase shall be unclean. And if 37 
aught of their carcase fall upon any sowing seed which is 
to be sown, it is clean. But if water be put upon the 38 
seed, and avgft of them carcase fall thereon, it is unclean 
unto you. j 

And if any beast, of which ye may eat, die; he that 39 
toucheth the carcase thereof shall be unclean until the 
even. And he that eateth of the carcase of it shall wash 40 » 
his clothes, and be unclean until the even: he also that 
beareth the carcase of it shall wash his clothes, and be 
unclean until the even. 


* Or, stewpan > Or, cistern © Or, he who 


34. The same absorbent property which made water a cathartic 
for uncleanness made it also a medium for the spread of infection ; 
hence the phrase, ‘that on which water cometh.’ Cf. the dis- 
tinction between dry and wet seed in verse 37f. 

35. oven, or range for pots: the former was the large earthen 
jar on the inner sides of which, after heating, the flat cakes were 
baked ; the latter, according to the Talmud, was a portable 
cooking-stove capable of holding two pots (the original is in the 
dual number). 

36. The point here is that the water in a spring-fed well is 
being constantly renewed ; in a large cistern (so read with margin) 

the infection was perhaps regarded as so diluted as to be in- 
nocuous, 

_ 39£. Up to this point only the dead bodies of creatures in them- 
selves unclean have been considered. Here the principle is 

- extended to the carcases of such clean beasts as had not been 


88 LEVITICUS 11. 41-47. PB 


41 And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth 
42 is an abomination ; it shall not be eaten. Whatsoever 
goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all 
four, or whatsoever hath many feet, even all creeping 
things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat ; 
43 for they are an abomination. Ye shall not make your- 
selves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, 
neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, 
44 that ye should be defiled thereby. For I am the Lorp 
your God: sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy ; 
for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with 
any manner of creeping thing that moveth upon the earth. 
45 For I am the Lorp that brought you up out of the land 
of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, 
for I am holy. 
46 ‘This is the law of the beast, and of the fowl, and » 
every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of 
47 every creature that creepeth upon the earth: to make 
a difference between the unclean and the clean, and 
between the living thing that may be eaten and the 
living thing that may not be eaten. 








ritually slaughtered; cf. xvii. 15, where the further purification of 
a bath is prescribed for ‘every soul that eateth that which dieth 
of itself.’ 

41-45. Here the treatment of uncleanness from eating tabooed 
flesh is continued from verse 23. To the preceding classes of 
mammals, fishes, birds, and insects, is added a fourth class com- 
prising reptiles. Members of this section of the animal world have 
always been held in peculiar awe by the Semites om account of 
their supposed connexion with demonic spirits. That this belief 
was current in certain circles even among the Hebrews is shown 
by the description of the secret cult in Ezek. viii. tof. 

447, For the significance of the motive here alleged, see above, 
p- 82. 


LEVITICUS 12. 1-5. P 89 


And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 12 2 
the children of Israel, saying, If a woman conceive seed, 


and bear a man child, then she shall be unclean seven 


. days ; as in the days of the “impurity of her sickness 


shall she be unclean. And in the eighth day the flesh 3 
of his foreskin shall be circumcised. And she shall con- 4 — 
tinue in the blood of er purifying three and thirty days ; 
she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the 
sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled. 
But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean 
two weeks, as in her “impurity: and she shall continue 
in the blood of er purifying threescore and six days. 


® Or, separation 





(0) xii. The law of the purification of women after child-birth. 


In this chapter we are still on ground that, in Emerson’s phrase, 
is ‘ washed by antediluvian spray.’ Among all primitive peoples 
a woman in child-birth is regarded as ‘a nidus of impurity,’ a 
source of mysterious dangers to all about her. Even among the 
higher races, Greeks and Romans as well as Hebrews, similar 
views prevailed. In the island of Delos, for example, no woman 
was allowed to be confined lest its sacred soil should be polluted. 
In the passage before us all such animistic conceptions are left 
far behind, but the impurity of child-birth is shown by the 


_ exclusion of the mother from the cultus, and from social inter- 


course for a period which varied according to the sex of the child 
(see below). The reason for the separation of this chapter from 


_ chap. xv, to which it naturally belongs, is not apparent. 


2. The latter half of the verse has reference to xv. 19 ff. 
4. The period of impurity extends in the case of a male child 


_ to forty days in all, divided into two stages of decreasing stringency 


ofseven and thirty-three days respectively. Parallels to this period 


_ of forty days are found among many races, ancient and modern. 





5. In the case of a female child, each of these stages is twice 
as long, making eighty days in all. This difference also has its 
analogies elsewhere. It was a popular belief that a confinement 


_ in this case was attended by greater risks than in the other, which 
originally meant that more powerful demonic influences were at 
work causing a longer period of impurity. The practice was re- 


tained long after this belief was outgrown, 


go LEVITICUS 12. 6—13. 7%. P 


6 And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for 
a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the 
first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or 
a turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door of the tent 

7 of meeting, unto the priest: and he shall offer it before 
the Lorp, and make atonement for her ; and she shall 
be cleansed from the fountain of her blood. This is the 
law for her that beareth, whether a male or a female. 

8 And if her means suffice not for a lamb, then she shall 
take two turtledoves, or two young pigeons; the one for 
a burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering; and 
the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be 
clean. 


13 And the Lorp spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, 


6f. for a sin offering ...and make atonement for her. To 
interpret these terms in what may be called the traditional dogmatic 
sense would compel us to believe that the Hebrews regarded the 
exercise of the sacred function of motherhood asa ‘sin,’ for which 
‘atonement’ was required as a preliminary to the divine forgive- 
ness. The true explanation will be found in the notes on iv. 3 
and 20, Both expressions, it is contended, belonged originally to 
the terminology of the ritual of purification, and this passage 
helps to show that ‘sin’ was thought of as something physical 
and non-moral before it acquired a purely ethical content. 

8. Cf. the similar concession, v. 7, and the N.T. instance, 
Luke ii. 24. Although the burnt-offering is mentioned in these 
verses before the sin-offering, the latter for obvious reasons was 
always the first to be offered (v. 8; cf. viii. 14, 18). 


(¢) xiii-xiv. Laws concerning leprosy and the necessary purifica- 
tions, : 

In this section various skin diseases, to which the generic term 
sara ath, ‘leprosy,’ is applied, are treated as a third special source 
of ceremonial impurity (xiii. 1-46), and the necessary rites of 
purification prescribed (xiv. 1-32). The same term is also applied 
by analogy to two cases of ‘leprosy’ in garments (xiii. 47-59) and 
houses (xiv. 33-53). A comprehensive colophon closes the section 
(54-57). The discrepant details of the purgation rites show that 
these chapters reflect the ideas and embody the practices of different 





LEVITICUS 13.2, P os 


_ saying, When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a 


rising, or a scab, or a bright spot, and it become in the 
skin of his flesh the plague of leprosy, then he shall be 
brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons 





epochs, some of them bearing marks of extreme antiquity (see 
below). 

Apart from its application to houses and wearing apparel, it is 
evident that the ‘leprosy’ of this section included more than 
one specific disease, but the existing uncertainty as to the 
precise meaning of several of the diagnostic terms makes it im- 
possible to reach more than a probable identification. This at 
least may be said: if true leprosy (elephantiasis Graecorum) is here 
included, the reference must be to its earliest stages; even so, one 
would expect to find somewhere in these chapters a reference to 
its characteristic symptoms at a later stage. Asa recent authority 
has said, ‘it may be doubted if any one would ever have dis- 
covered true leprosy in these chapters but for the translation of 
saraath (by lepra), in LXX and Vulgate’ (Creighton, art. ‘Leprosy 
in £.Bz. vol. iii). 

The standpoint from which leprosy! is treated in the priestly 
legislation is the religious and ceremonial, Its various forms 
exclude the patient from the cultus, and from the sacred community 
of Israel (xiii. 45f.). It is the priest accordingly, as the represen-, 
tative of Yahweh, whose holiness is injured, that decides as to the 
nature of the disease, and on its disappearance pronounces the 
patient ‘clean.’ Sanitary considerations do not appear, for 
“leprosy’ was not considered contagious in the modern sense— 
its contagion was of the more primitive and dangerous sort 
explained above (p. 8x f.)—as we see from the statement in the 
Mishna that the provisions here laid down did not extend to 
foreigners and sojourners (Wegaim, i.e. Leprosy, iii. 1; this 
treatise, translated in Barclay, The Talmud, 267 ff., gives the later 
legislation on the subject, with interesting details of the modus 
operandi of inspection, quarantine, &c.). 


1-8. The first of seven suspected cases described. 

2. and it become ... the plague of leprosy: i.e. either of 
which is likely to develop into a leprous patch ; ‘ plague’ has here 
its original sense of ‘stroke’ (Plaga, cf. a ‘stroke’ of paralysis), 
which is the literal rendering of the original. Driver throughout 
adopts ‘mark,’ as left by a stroke, as a better modern rendering. 





1 The received rendering of zaraath is here retained in the generic- 
sense of the original; ‘leper’ is used in the same comprehensive sense. 


LJ 


| STS 
92 LEVITICUS 13. 3-7. B ae 


~ 


3 the priests: and the priest shall look on the plague in 
the skin of the flesh: and if the hair in the plague be 
turned white, and the appearance of the plague be 
deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is the plague of 
leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pro- 

4nounce him unclean. And if the bright spot be white 
in the skin of his flesh, and the appearance thereof be 
not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not 
turned white, then the priest shall shut up Aim that hath 

5 the plague seven days: and the priest shall look on him 
the seventh day: and, behold, if in his eyes the plague 
be at a stay, and the plague be not spread in the skin, 

6 then the priest shall shut him up seven days more: and 
the priest shall look on him again the seventh day: and, 
behold, if the plague be dim, and the plague be not 
spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him 
clean: it is a scab: and he shall wash his clothes, and 

; be clean. But if the scab spread abroad in the skin, 
after that he hath shewn himself to the priest for his 





3 ff. In his diagnosis of the disease the priest is to begin by 
applying a double test: (1) has the body-hair on the affected 
patch turned white? (2) does the pathological condition extend 
beneath the cuticle? (For this interpretation of 3b, see Minch, 
Die Zaraath (Lepra) der hebr. Bibel, pp. 110-114 ; cf. Macalister, 
DB. iii. 96a). If both these marks are present it is a case of 
‘leprosy.’ If they are not decisively present, the suspect is put in 
quarantine for seven days, after which the priest shall apply 
a third test—has the affected area spread ? 

5. if in his eyes, &c.: read, by omitting a letter, as in verse 55, 
‘if in its appearance (R.V. colour) the patch is unchanged’ 
(so in verse 37). 

6. it is a scab: rather ‘an eruption’ of a harmless nature, and 
the suspect, after a minor purification, is ceremonially clean. 

7 £. If after a week the patch under observation appears to 
have spread, and this is confirmed after a second week’s quaran- 
tine, the suspect is unclean; ‘it is leprosy.” The symptoms here 
described have been identified by Miinch, of. cit., as those of vitiligo 
(cf. EZ. Br. iii. col. 2765). 


As 


LEVITICUS 13. 8-17, P 93 


the priest shall look, and, behold, if the scab be spread 
in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean : 
it is leprosy. 


cleansing, he shall shew himself to the priest again : and s 


When the plague.of leprosy is in a man, then he shall 9 


be brought unto the priest; and the priest shall look, 


and, behold, if there be a white rising in the skin, and it 


_ have turned the hair white, and there be quick raw flesh 
_ in the rising, it is an old leprosy in the skin of his flesh, 


and the priest shall pronounce him unclean: he shall not 
shut him up; for he is unclean. And if the leprosy 
break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all 
the skin of Aim chat hath the plague from his head ,even 


to his feet, as far as appeareth to the priest ; then the 


a 


priest shall look: and, behold, if the leprosy have 
covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce /zm clean ¢hat 
hath the plague: it is all turned white: he is clean. But 
whensoever raw flesh appeareth in him, he shall be un- 
clean. And the priest shall look on the raw flesh, and 
pronounce him unclean: the raw flesh is unclean: it is 
leprosy. Or if the raw flesh turn again, and be changed 
unto white, then he shall come unto the priest, and the 
priest shall look on him: and, behold, if the plague be 
turned into white, then the priest shall pronounce Aim 


clean that hath the plague: he is clean. 





2-17 give the diagnostics of a second (or second and third) 
case, the identification of which is more difficult owing chiefly to 
the uncertainty attaching to a new mark, here rendered ‘ quick 
raw flesh’ (verse 10), and described by Macalister as ‘red granu- 
lation tissue’ (DB. iii. 96a). _The most remarkable feature in the 
ceremonial treatment of this form of ‘leprosy’ is that the patient 
ceased to be unclean, although still probably reckoned as a leper 
(cf. Naaman’s case, 2 Kings v. 1 ff), when his skin had ‘all turned 
white ... from his head even to his feet.’ Here at least there 


‘ean be no question of tubercular elephantiasis, but rather of 


10 


a 


st ae 
94 LEVITICUS 13. 18-27. P 


18 And when the flesh hath in the skin thereof a boil, 
1g and it is healed, and in the place of the boil there is 
a white rising, or a bright spot, reddish-white, then it 
20 shall be shewed to the priest ; and the priest shall look, 
and, behold, if the appearance thereof be lower than the 
skin, and the hair thereof be turned white, then the 
priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of 
az leprosy, it hath broken out in the boil. But if the priest 
look on it, and, behold, there be no white hairs therein, 
and it be not lower than the skin, but be dim, then the 
22 priest shall shut him up seven days: and if it spread 
abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him 
23 unclean: it isa plague. But if the bright spot stay in 
its place, and be not spread, it is the scar of the boil; 
and the priest shall pronounce him clean. 
24 Or when the flesh hath in the skin thereof a burning 


by fire, and the quick flesh of the burning become — 


25a bright spot, reddish-white, or white; then the priest 


“shall look upon it : and, behold, if the hair in the bright — 


spot be turned white, and the appearance thereof be 


deeper than the skin ; it is leprosy, it hath broken out in — 
the burning: and the priest shall pronounce him un- — 


26 clean : it is the plague of leprosy. But if the priest look 


on it, and, behold, there be no white hair in the bright 


spot, and it be no lower than the skin, but be dim; then 
27 the priest shall shut him up seven days; and the priest 


shall look upon him the seventh day : if it spread abroad — 


psoriasis or English leprosy. It has been suggested that a com- 
plication of this disease with eczema would explain the reference 
to the ‘raw flesh’ which was reckoned ‘unclean: it is leprosy’ 
(verse 15). 

18-23, 24-28. Two other cases in which the nidus of the 
suspected disease is the scar left by a boil or a burn respectively. 
The procedure follows closely that prescribed for the first case. 


LEVITICUS 13. 28-36. P 95 


in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean : 
it is the plague of leprosy. And if the bright spot stay 28 
_ in its place, and be not spread in the skin, but be dim; 
it is the rising of the burning, and the priest shall pro- 
nounce him clean: for it is the scar of the burning. 

And when a man or woman hath a plague upon the 29 
_ head or upon the beard, then the priest shall look on 30 
the plague: and, behold, if the appearance thereof be 
deeper than the skin, and there be in it yellow thin hair, 
then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a 
scall, it is leprosy of the head or of the beard. And if 31 
the priest look on the plague of the scall, and, behold, 
the appearance thereof be not deeper than the skin, and 
there be no black hair in it, then the priest shall shut up 
him that hath the plague of the scall seven days: and in 32 
the seventh day the priest shall look on the plague: and, 
behold, if the scall be not spread, and there be in it no 
yellow hair, and the appearance of the scall be not 
deeper than the skin, then he shall be shaven, but the 33 
scall shall he not shave; and the priest shall shut up 
him that hath the scall seven days more: and in the 34 
seventh day the priest shall look on the scall: and, 
behold, if the scall be not spread in the skin, and the 
appearance thereof be not deeper than the skin ; then 
the priest shall pronounce him clean: and he shall wash 
his clothes, and be clean. But if the scall spread abroad 35 
in the skin after his cleansing ; then the priest shall look 36 
on him: and, behold, if the scall be spread in the skin, 





29-37. A disease of the head-hair and beard, the nethek or scal\ 
{verse 30). Its special diagnostic is the presence of thin yellow 
hairs on the affected parts. It is generally agreed that the ‘scall’ 
of this section is a species of ringworm, ‘ whichis a very contagious 
disease, due to the presence of a fungus.’ 


* 


96 LEVITICUS 13. 37-45.) 


‘ae. 


the priest shall not seek for the yellow hair; he is un- 
37 Clean. But if in his eyes the scall be at a stay, and 
black hair be grown up therein ; the scall is healed, he is 
clean: and the priest shall pronounce him clean. — 
38 And when a man or a woman hath in the skin of their 
39 flesh bright spots, even white bright spots; then the 
priest shall look: and, behold, if the bright spots in the 
skin of their flesh be of a dull white ; it is a tetter, it 
hath broken out in the skin; he is clean. 
40 And if a man’s hair be fallen off his head, he is bald ; 
41 vet is he clean. And if his hair be fallen off from the 
front part of his head, he is forehead bald; ye/ is he 
42 clean. But if there be in the bald head, or the bald 
forehead, a reddish-white plague; it is leprosy breaking 
43 out in his bald head, or his bald forehead. Then the 
priest shall look upon him: and, behold, if the rising of 
the plague be reddish-white in his bald head, or in his 
bald forehead, as the appearance of leprosy in the skin 
44 of the flesh; he is a leprous man, he is unclean: the 
priest shall surely pronounce him unclean ; his plague is 
in his head. 
And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall 
be rent, and *the hair of his head’ shall go loose, and he 


shall cover his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. 
* Secich; xutu 


as 
wr 





3sf. A less serious and ‘clean’ skin affection termed bohak, 
EV ‘tetter’, which, like scall, denotes an eruption of the skin. In 
parts of Arabia and Syria ‘a common eczematous skin disease” is 
still known as bahak. 


40-44. The last of the skin diseases here included under leprosy. 
No penalty, it is comforting to know, attached to natural baldness, 
but when attacked on scalp or forehead by ringworm or scald- 
head, the patient was treated as a leper. 

45 f. All persons pronounced by a priest to be suffering from any 
of the above diseases are to be removed outside their town or vil- 


LEVITICUS 13. 46-5: P 97 


‘All the days wherein the plague is in him he shall be un- 46 


clean ; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone ; without the 
camp shall his dwelling be. 

The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, 47 
whether it be a woollen garment, or a linen garment; 
whether it be in ® warp, or woof ; of linen, or of woollen ; 48 
whether in a skin, or in any thing made of skin; if the 49 
plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the 
skin, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of 
skin; it is the plague of leprosy, and shail be shewed 
unto the priest: and the priest shall look upon the 50 
plague, and shut up ¢hat which hath the plague seven 
days: and he shall look on the plague on the seventh 51 
day: if the plague be spread in the garment, either in 


* Or, woven or knitted stuff (and in vv. 49, &c.) 


lage, not, as we have seen, on account of the contagious nature of 
the disease, but as a consequence of the antique conception of the 
contagion of uncleanness. Their condition is to be made known 
to all by the prescriptions in the text, which are those elsewhere 
applied to mourners for the dead. The covering of the upper lip 
is doubtless to be explained by some primitive idea or practice, as 
yet obscure. Bertholet remarks here on the incapacity of ‘the 
antique religion to afford comfort and effective help to the sick; 
this power is first found in Christianity’ (Kurser Hand-commentar 
in loc.). 


47-59. This section, dealing with ‘leprosy’ in garments, has 
now little more than an antiquarian interest. Not only are 
woollen‘and linen garments affected but ‘anything made of skin,’ 
‘There are various moulds and mildews, as well as deposits of the 
eggs of moths, which would produce the appearances and effects, 
and would call for the remedial measures of the text’ (Creighton, 
E. Bi. iii., col. 2764). As the section interrupts the natural con- 
nexion between the preceding verses and chap. xiv, and has its 
own colophon (verse 59), it is probably an independent /érah, 
inserted here by a later hand. Its later elaboration will be found 
in the treatise Negaim, chap. xi. 

48. whether it be in warp, or woof: for the accuracy of this 


_ rendering as compared with the margin, with its curious anachron- 


"te < 


ism re knitting, see the writer’s art. ‘ Weaving,’ E. Bi. iv., col. 5282. 
H 


98 LEVITICUS 13. 52-59. P 


the warp, or in the woof, or in the skin, whatever service 
skin is used for; the plague is a fretting leprosy; it is 
52 unclean. And he shall burn the garment, whether the 
warp or the woof, in woollen or in linen, or any thing of 
skin, wherein the plague is: for it is a fretting leprosy ; 
53 it shall be burnt in the fire. And if the priest shall look, 
and, behold, the plague be not spread in the garment, 
either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of 
54 skin ; then the priest shall command that they wash the 
thing wherein the plague is, and he shall shut it up 
55 seven days more: and the priest shall look, after that 
the plague is washed: and, behold, if the plague have 
not changed its colour, and the plague be not spread, it 
is unclean; thou shalt burn it in the fire: it is a fret, 
56 ® whether the bareness be within or without. And if the 
priest look, and, behold, the plague be dim after the 
washing thereof, then he shall rend it out of the garment, 
or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof; 
57 and if it appear still in the garment, either in the warp, 
or in the woof, or in any thing of skin, it is breaking out; 
thou shalt burn that wherein the plague is with fire. 
58 And the garment, either the warp, or the woof, or what- 
soever thing of skin it be, which thou shalt wash, if the 
plague be departed from them, then it shall be washed 
59 the second time, and shall be clean. This is the law of 
the plague of leprosy in a garment of woollen or linen, 


* Heb. whether it be bald in the head thereof, or in the forchead 
thereof. 


51, a fretting leprosy: ‘fret’ here, as in verse 55, means 
‘to eat into’; cf. P.B. Version of Ps. xxxix. ra, ‘like as it were a 
moth fretting a garment.’ A more modern equivalent is ‘ malig- 
nant’. 

55. itis a fet: ‘it has eaten into the cloth,’ 


LEVITICUS 14. 1-5. P. E 99 


either in the warp, or the woof, or any thing of skin, to 
pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean. 


And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, This shall 142 
be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he 
shall be brought unto the priest: and the priest shall go 3 
forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, 
behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper ; 
then shall the priest command to take for him that is to 4 
_be cleansed two living clean birds, and cedar wood, and 
scarlet, and hyssop: and the priest shall command to 5 





Chap. xiv. The serious view taken by the later priestly legis- 
lators of the danger to the theocratic community arising from the 
various forms of uncleanness dealt with in xiii. 1-46, is evidenced 
by the unique series of purgation rites which follow in xiv. 1-32. 
As these are now arranged, the purification of the leper is carried 
through in two stages, the first consisting of the antique rite 
described in verses 3-8*, a purgation rite in the fullest sense; the 
second embracing the elaborate consecration rites detailed in 
verses 9-20, and again in verses 21-32. 

It needs no great penetration to see that we have here two 
originally independent ceremonies of purification, dating from 
very different epochs. The two are now artificially united by 
the editorial clause forming the latter half of verse 8, in which the 
terms ‘camp’ and ‘tent’ are introduced, as is done elsewhere, to 
adapt the whole to the situation in the wilderness. By this 
means the older rite is reduced to a mere partial purification, pre- 
liminary to the final and more elaborate ceremony that follows. 
In support of this, the modern critical view, the student is asked 

_to note (1) that the older rite is complete in itself, at the end the 
leper is clean (verse 8*); (2) that the section 14-20 betrays its 
later origin by the more distinctly religious motives apparent 
throughout, by the application to laymen of a peculiar rite origin- 
ally confined to the priesthood (see on verses 14 ff.), and by the 
abundance of detail generally. 


1-8*, The older rite of purification, combining the two uni- 
versal cathartic media, blood and ‘ living’ water. 

4. cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: these were also 
employed in another purgation ritual retaining several primitive 
features, Num. xix. 6 (which see). Cedar, here probably a 
“species of juniper, cypress, and tamarisk, in virtue of their 


He 2 


> 
" 


100 LEVITICUS 14.6-8 PB 


kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over ® running 
6 water: as for the living bird, he shall take it, and the 
cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall 
dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird 
7 that was killed over the * running water: and he shall 
sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy 
seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall 
8 let go the living bird into the open field. And he that 
is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off 
all his hair, and bathe himself in water, and he shall be 
® Heb. living. 





aromatic properties, were added by the Babylonians to water 
used for purposes of purification (Jastrow, Die Religion Baby- 
loniens, ii, 202). Red frequently figures in lustration ceremonies 
(see notes on Num., /.c.). Hyssop was probably a species of 
marjoram, the whole intended to provide a sprinkler for the 
application of the blood. As the procedure is described in the 
Mishna (egaim xiv), the cedar rod, a cubit long, the hyssop and 
one end of the ‘tongue’ or strip of scarlet cloth were laid 
together, then bound round by the latter, with which ‘the tips of 
the wings and the end of the tail’ of the living bird were also 
bound, 

5. over the running water: /i. as margin, ‘living’ water from 
a spring or running stream, not from a cistern or pool. Accord- 
ing to Negaim, one quarter log—about a quarter of a pint—of 
water was put into the vessel. 

7. and shall let go the living bird into the open field: cf. 
verse 53. The nearest O.T. analogy is the scapegoat, or goat 
‘for Azazel,’ in the ritual of the Day of Atonement (xvi. to, 21 f.). 
In both cases we have interesting examples of the retention in the 
priestly ritual of the primitive ceremony known as sin-transference 
and found all over the world in ancient and modern times, as 
students of modern works: like Frazer’s Golden Bough are aware. 
The idea underlying it is that ‘the sin can be extracted as if it 
were a substance from the person of the sinner, and transferred 
into another man or animal, or even an inanimate object’ (Farnell, 
Evolution of Religion, 116). An exact parallel to the case before 
us is supplied by the ‘Arabian custom, when a widow before re- 
marriage makes a bird fly away with the uncleanness of her 
widowhood’ (Rel. Sem.?, 422). 

8*, It is a widespread belief among primitive races that the hair 
specially harbours impurity, and its removal in similar cases is 


LEVITICUS 14. 9-iz. P Iol 


clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, but 
shall dwell outside his tent seven days. And it shall be 
on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off 
his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his 
hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, 
and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and he shall be 
clean. And on the eighth day he shall take two he- 
lambs without blemish, and one ewe-lamb of the first 
year without blemish, and three tenth parts of an ephah 
of fine flour for a meal offering, mingled with oil, and one 
log of oil. And the priest that cleanseth him shall set 
the man that is to be cleansed, and those things, before 
the Lorp, at the door of the tent of meeting: and the 
priest shall take one of the he-lambs, and offer him for 
a guilt offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for 


a world-wide practice. The origin and purpose of 8” has been 
already explained. 


9-20. The older rite, originally complete in itself—note especi- 
ally the last words of 8*, ‘and he shall be clean’—has now 
become a mere preliminary to a much more elaborate and solemn 
ceremony, inspired with the theocratic conceptions of the priestly 
legislators, by which the leper is reconsecrated a member of the 
theocratic community. All the chief varieties of offerings, with 
the exception of the peace-offering, are prescribed: viz. one he- 
lamb for a guilt-offering, another for a burnt-offering, and a year- 
ling ewe-lamb for a sin-offering (iv. 32), with a quantity of fine 
flour as a meal-offering to accompany the burnt-offering. 

9. The absence here of any reference to the identical ceremony 
in 8* shows the independent origin of this section. ; 

10. three tenth parts of an ephah: in all about 15 pecks (see 
on v.11). The log was a liquid measure, containing about a pint 
(DB., iv. grt f.). 

12. Two points in the ritual here prescribed are noteworthy : 
(1) the occurrence of a guilt-offering when there is no question of 
misappropriation of property (see on v. 14 ff.), suggesting a similar 
confusion to that found in v. 17 ff.—here only is the victim of a 
guilt-offering other than a ram; (2) the introduction of the rite of 
waving (cf. verses 21, 24) inan entirely different sense from vii. 30 
(See note there). The oil at least did not fall to the priest. 


=) 


102 LEVITICUS 14. 13420. P 


13 a wave offering before the Lorp: and he shall kill the 
he-lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering and 
the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary: for as 
the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the guilt offering: it 

141s most holy: and the priest shall take of the blood 
of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it upon the 
tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and 
upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great 

15 toe of his right foot: and the priest shall take of the log 
of oil, and pour.it into the palm of his own left hand; 

16 and the priest shall dip his right’ finger in the oil that is 
in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his 

17 finger seven times before the Lorp: and of the rest of 
the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the 
tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and 
upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great 
toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the guilt offering : 

18 and the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he 
shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed: 
and the priest shall make atonement for him before the 

19 Lorp. . And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and 
make atonement for him that is to be cleansed because 
of his uncleanness ; and afterward he shall kill the burnt 

20 offering: and the priest shall offer the burnt offering and 





14. See on viii. 23 f. This imitation of the consecration rite of 
the priesthood is perhaps intended to emphasize the fact that the 
chosen people were cal!ed to be ‘a kingdom of priests and an holy 
nation’ (Exod. xix. 6). 

15-17. If the blood-rite effects the leper’s reconsecration, the 
more complex procedure with the oil, recalling as it does the 
ancient covenant rite at Sinai (Exod. xxiv, 6-8), is intended to 
restore him to his covenant relation with God. The intimate 
association, here and in the following verses, of ‘atonement’ 
with cleansing is further evidence that the idea of purification 
from sin, in the antique sense of uncleanness, lies at the basis of 
the O.T. doctrine of atonement (see above, p 51). 


ae, — o- 


LEVITICUS 14. 21-29. P - 103 


the meal offering upon the altar: and the priest shall 
make atonement for him, and he shall be clean. 

And if he be poor, and cannot get so much, then he 
shall take one he-lamb for a guilt offering to be waved, 
to make atonement for him, and one tenth part of an 
ephah of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering, 
and a log of oil; and two turtledoves, or two young 
pigeons, such as he is able to get ; and the one shall be 
a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering. And on 
the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing 
unto the priest, unto the door of the tent of meeting, 
before the Lorp. And the priest shall take the lamb 
of the guilt offering, and the log of oil, and the priest 
shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lorp: 
and he shall kill the lamb of the guilt offering, and the 
priest shall take of the blood of the guilt offering, and 
put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be 
cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and 
upon the great toe of his right foot: and the priest shall 
pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand: and 
the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the 
oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lorn: 
and the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand 
upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, 
and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the 
great toe of his right foot, upon the place of the blood of 
the guilt offering: and the rest of the oil that is in the 
priest’s hand he shall put upon the head of him that is 
to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before the 





21-32. Provision for less costly offerings in the case of the 
poor, similar to the provisions of v. 7 ff. and xii. 8. The demand 
for a he-lamb as a guilt-offering remains, but the other two animal 
sacrifices are reduced, as in the passages cited, to ‘two turtle- 
doves or two young pigeons,’ while the amount of the meal-offering 


iS) 


2 


[s) 


4 


25 


26 


ay, 


28 


29 


ri 


104 LEVITICUS 14. 30-37. P 


3° Lorp. And he shall offer one of the turtledoves, or of 
31 the young pigeons, such as he is able to get; even such _ 
as he is able to get, the one for a sin offering, and the 
other for a burnt offering, with the meal offering: and 
the priest shall make atonement for him that is to be 
32 cleansed before the Lorp. This is the law of him in 
whom is the plague of leprosy, who is not able to get 
that which pertaineth to his cleansing, 
33 And the Lorp spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, 
34 saying, When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which 
I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague 
of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession ; 
35 then he that owneth the house shall come and tell the 
priest, saying, There seemeth to me to be as it were 
36a plague in the house: and the priest shall command 
that they empty the house, before the priest go in to see 
the plague, that all that is in the house be not made 
unclean: and afterward the priest shall go in to see the 
house: and he shall look on the plague, and, behold, if 
the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow 
strakes, greenish or reddish, and the appearance thereof 


3 


ar 


is reduced to one-tenth of an ephah, say half a peck. Otherwise 
the procedure is the same. The section has its own colophon 
(verse 32), and its separate history. The first clause of verse 31 
is a repetition, due to the slip of a copyist, of the last clause of 
verse 30. 


33-35. Leprosy in houses, a section with a similar history to 
that dealing with the leprosy of garments. The disease, if it may 
be so called, was evidently caused by some parasitic fungus akin 
to that which causes our dry rot. The relative chapters, xii, xiii, 
of Negaim should be consulted. 

3S. be not made unclean: as a result of the contagion of 
ceremonial uncleanness, as in verses 46f, There is no thought 
of the leprosy ‘infecting,’ in the modern sense, the occupants of 
the house. 

37. This difficult verse may be freely rendered thus: ‘if the 
suspected patches on the walls of the house show greenish or 


LEVITICUS 14. 38-49. P 105 


be lower than the wall; then the priest shall go out of 38 
the house to the door of the house, and shut up the 
house seven days: and the priest shall come again the 39 
seventh day, and shall look: and, behold, if the plague 
be spread in the walls of the house; then the priest 4° 
shall command that they take out the stones in which 
the plague is, and cast them into an unclean place with- 
out the city: and he shall cause the house to be scraped 41 
within round about, and they shall pour out the mortar 
that they scrape off without the city into an unclean 
place: and they shall take other stones, and put them in 42 
the place of those stones ; and he shall take other mortar, 
and shall plaister the house. And if the plague come 43 
again, and break out in the house, after that he hath 
taken out the stones, and after he hath scraped the house, 
and after it is plaistered ; then the priest shall come in 44 
and look, and, behold, if the plague be spread in the 
house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean. 
And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and 45 
the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house ; and 
he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean 
place. Moreover he that goeth into the house all the 46 
while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even. 
And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes ; 47 
and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes. 
And if the priest shall come in, and look, and, behold, 48 
the plague hath not spread in the house, after the house 
was plaistered ; then the priest shall pronounce the house 
clean, because the plague is healed. And he shall take 49 





reddish depressions,’—cf. the description of the mould in xiil. 
49,—‘ and if the discoloration is found to have penetrated beneath 
the surface of the plaster (cf. xiii. 3), then the priest,’ &e. 

44, For ‘fretting,’ or malignant, leprosy, see on xiii. 51. 


106 LEVITICUS 14. 502—15. 2. P 


to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and 
5° scarlet, and hyssop : and he shall kill one of the birds in 
51 an earthen vessel over “running water: and he shall take 
the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the 
living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, 
and in the * running water, and sprinkle the house seven 
52 times: and he shall cleanse the house with the blood of 
the bird, and with the “running water, and with the living 
bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and 
53 with the scarlet; but he shall let go the living bird out 
of the city into the open field: so shall he make atone- 
ment for the house : and it shail be clean. 
54 This is the law for all manner of plague of leprosy, 
55 and for a scall; and for the leprosy of a garment, and 
56 for a house; and for a rising, and for a scab, and for 
57 a bright spot: to teach when it is unclean, and when it is ~ 
clean: this is the law of leprosy. 


15 And the Lorn spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, 
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, 
* Heb. living. 





49-53. A ceremony of purification similar to that with which 
the chapter opened. 

54-57. A comprehensive colophon giving a summary of the 
contents of chaps. xiii—xiv in their present form. 


(d) xv. Laws concerning the uncleanness of issues. 

The last of the sources of ceremonial impurity embraced in this 
manual of purification (xi—xv) deals with secretions and dis- 
charges, both normal and diseased, from the sexual organs of 
man (verses 1-18) and woman (19-30), with a summary con- 
clusion (31-33). The remarks prefixed to the notes on chaps. xi 
and xii apply equally to the contents of this chapter. Modern 
anthropological research has shown that we have here to do with 
an attitude towards the sexual functions that is world-wide. 

1-15. Uncleanness caused by discharges from the urethra of 
males; ‘his flesh’ is a well-understood euphemism (ef. vi. 3). 


LEVITICUS 15. 3-13. P 107 


When any man hath an issue out of his flesh, because of 
his issue he is unclean. And this shall be his unclean- 3 
ness in his issue: whether his flesh run with his issue, 
or his flesh be stopped from his issue, it is his unclean- 
ness. Every bed whereon he that hath the issue lieth 4 
shall be unclean: and every thing whereon he sitteth 
shall be unclean. And whosoever toucheth his bed 5 
shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and 
be unclean until the even. And he that sitteth on any 6 
thing whereon he that hath the issue sat shall wash his 
clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until 
the even. And he that toucheth the flesh of him that 7 
hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself 
in water, and be unclean until the even. And if he that s 
hath the issue spit upon him that is clean ; then he shall 
wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be 
unclean until the even. And what @*saddle soever he 9 
that hath the issue rideth upon shall be unclean. And ro 
whosoever toucheth any thing that was under him shall 
be unclean until the even: and he that beareth those 
_ things shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, 
and be unclean until the even. And whomsoever he 11 
that hath the issue toucheth, without having rinsed his 
hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe 
himself in water, and be unclean until the even. And 12 
the earthen vessel, which he that hath the issue toucheth, 
shall be broken: and every vessel of wood shall be 
rinsed in water. And when he that hath an issue is 13 
® Or, carriage 


The contagion of such uncleanness—so also that of verses 25-30 — 
occupies a position as to intensity midway between minor states 
of impurity which were removed by bathing and the culminating 
impurity of ‘leprosy’ (see verses 14 f. compared with xiv. to ff.). 


108 LEVITICUS 15. 14-22. PB 


cleansed of his issue, then he shall number to himself 
seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes; and 
he shall bathe his flesh in “running water, and shall be 

14 clean. And on the eighth day he shall take to him two 
turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and come before the 
Lorp unto the door of the tent of meeting, and give 

15 them unto the priest: and the priest shall offer them, 
the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offer- 
ing ; and the priest shall make atonement for him before 
the Lorp for his issue. 

16 And if any man’s seed of copulation go out from him, 
then he shall bathe all his flesh in water, and be unclean 

17 until the even. And every garment, and every skin, 
whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with 

18 water, and be unclean until the even. The woman also 
with whom a man shall lie with seed of copulation, they 
shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean 
until the even. 

19 And if a woman have an issue, avd her issue in = 
flesh be blood, she shall be in her » impurity seven days: 
and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the 

20even. And every thing that she lieth upon in her 
bimpurity shall be unclean: every thing also that she 

a1 sitteth upon shall be unclean. And whosoever toucheth 
her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in 

22 water, and be unclean until the even. And whosoever 


® Heb. diving. > Or, separation 





16-18. Not only does an involuntary emissio seminis pollute 
(cf. Deut. xxiii. 10), but also the exercise of conjugal rights (for 
the latter see Rel. Sem.*, 158, 454 ff.). Verse 18 should run: ‘if 
a man lie with a woman,’ &c. 

19-24. Uncleanness caused by the menstrual discharge. In 
this condition, as in childbirth, women were, and among primitive 
races still are, regarded as ‘charged with a mysterious baneful 


LEVITICUS 15. 23-30. P 109 


toucheth any thing that she sitteth upon shall wash his 
clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until 
the even. And if it be on the bed, or on any thing 23 
whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be 
unclean until the even. And if any man lie with her, 24 
and her impurity be upon him, he shall be unclean 
seven days; and every bed whereon he lieth shall be 
unclean. 

And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days 25 
not in the time of her impurity, or if she have an issue 
beyond the time of her impurity; all the days of the 
issue of her uncleanness she shall be as in the days of 
her impurity: she is unclean. Every bed whereon she 26 
lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the 
bed of her impurity: and every thing whereon she 
sitteth shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her 
impurity. And whosoever toucheth those things shall 27 ° 
be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe him- 
self in water, and be unclean until the even. But if she 28 
be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to her- 
self seven days, and after that she shall be clean. And 29 
on the eighth day she shall take unto her two turtledoves, 
or two young pigeons, and bring them unto the priest, to 
the door of the tent of meeting. And the priest shall 3° 
offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt 





energy’ and the centre of ‘the action of superhuman agencies of 
a dangerous kind’ (see Rel. Sem.”, 447 ff.; Frazer, Golden Bough, 
i. 325 ff., iii. 222ff.). Proof of the early existence in South Arabia 
of the almost universal taboo specified in verse 24 (cf. xviii. 19, 
xx. 18, both H) has recently been found in the shape of tablets 
set up in sanctuaries recording confessions of its breach; they are 
quoted iz extenso by Nielsen, Altarab. Mondreligion, 206 f. 

25-30. Uncleanness caused by an abnormal ‘issue of blood’ 
(cf. Matt. ix. 20, Luke viii. 43). The purification required is of 
the same degree as for the major impurity of males. 


31 


32 


33 


16 


Ito LEVITICUS 15. 31—16.1 P 


offering ; and the priest shall make atonement for her 
before the Lorp for the issue of her uncleanness. 

Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from 
their uncleanness; that they die not in their unclean- 
ness, when they defile my tabernacle that is in the 
midst of them. 

This is the law of him that hath an issue, and of him 
whose seed of copulation goeth from him, so that he 
is unclean thereby; and of her that is sick with her 
impurity, and of him that hath an issue, of the man, and 
of the woman, and of him that lieth with her that is 
unclean. 


And the Lorp spake unto Moses, after the death of 





31. Thus shall ye separate: read with the Versions, ‘thus 
shall ye warn..°. as regards their uncleanness.’ 
when they defile my tabernacle: lit. ‘my dwelling,’ cf. Num. 
xix. 13, 20. The uncleanness of the people injures the holiness of 
Yahweh, who dwells among them (Exod. xxv, 8), and the conse- 
quence of His injured holiness is death. This idea of the infection 
of the sanctuary is prominent in the following chapter, and is 
characteristic both of the Law of Holiness and of Ezekiel. 


(e) xvi. The Day of Atonement. 

To the preceding laws of uncleanness and purification there has 
appropriately been appended the ritual of the most solemn and 
most intense of all the purification ceremonies of the Jewish law. 
The day on which it fell, the tenth of the seventh month (Tishri), 
received the name of ‘the day of (purification and) expiation’ 
(xxiii. 27 f., xxv. 9g—for this rendering, see note on iv. 20), 
shortened in later times to Yomed, ‘the day’ par excellence. The 
unique and impressive ritual of the day of atonement, to retain 
the current designation, is the culmination and crown of the 
sacrificial worship of the Old Testament. 

The problems which this chapter presents to the modern 
student are both literary and historical. The importance of the 
chapter from both these points of view demands a fuller treatment 
than can be given here, and accordingly a note has been appended 
at the end of the volume in which the literary analysis and the 
history and significance of the rite are more adequately discussed 


LEVITICUS 16.2. P IIt 


the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the 
Lor», and died; and the Lorp said unto Moses, Speak 
unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times 
into the holy place within the veil, before the mercy-seat 
which is upon the ark ; that he die not: for I will appear 





in the light of recent investigation. (See Additional Note A., 
The Day of Atonement.) With regard to the former, the literary 
history of the chapter, it must suffice here to note the four distinct 
elements of which it is now composed: (1) the original kernel, 
which probably stood in P® immediately after x. 1-5, 12-15, giv- 
ing special directions as to the occasions on which, with due 
precautions, Aaron is to be permitted to enter the most holy place 
(see on verse 2 below) ; (2) this kernel is now reduced to verses 
1-3", and perhaps 4, 12f. 34%, the greater part having been sup- 
pressed bya later hand to make way for an ancient purgation rite, 
which, it may be conjectured, formerly obtained at the local 
sanctuaries (3°, 5-10); (3) this rite was expanded by still another 
hand into the form now given in verses 11-28, the earlier form 
being retained as a summary introduction (cf. the analogous pro- 
cedure in chap. xiv); (4) verses 29-34, a section independent of 
all the foregoing (see below). Further regulations for the observ- 
ance of ‘the day’ are found in xxiii. 26-32, xxv. 9, Exod. xxx. Io, 
and Num. xxix, 7-11. 
1£. The death of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, in the cir- 

cumstances narrated in x. 1f., gives occasion for instructions as 
to the times at which, and the manner in which, the High Priest 
is to enter the immediate presence of Yahweh, represented by the 
mystic ‘cloud upon the mercy seat’ (cf. Exod, xxv. 22, xl. 34). 

that he come not at all times: i.e. got at any and every time, 
as may seem good to him. The majesty and almost unapproach- 
able holiness of Yahweh require that even His earthly represen- 
tative shall approach His presence only at such times and with 
such precautions as the divine Sovereign shall appoint (Exod. 
Xxxilil. 20), The similarity of the precautions to those adopted 
for the annual expiation ceremony in the sequel has led to the 
fusion of the two originally independent rituals, while the necessary 
specification of the proper time or times has been dropped as incon- 
sistent with the single entry of the later rite (verse 34). 

into the holy place within the veil: the inner sanctuary of the 
Tent of Meeting, see Exod. xxvi. 33, where, however, it is termed 
‘the most holy place,’ the outer sanctuary being ‘ the holy place.’ 
This chapter is unique in applying the latter term to the inner 
shrine (verses 3, 16, 20), and in using the inexact term ‘tent of 
meeting’ for the outer (16, 20, and 33, where see note). 


112 LEVITICUS 16. 3-7. P 


3 in the cloud upon the mercy-seat. Herewith shall Aaron 
come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin 

4 offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put 
on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen 
breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with the 
linen girdle, and with the linen ®mitre shall he be 
attired : they are the holy garments ; and he shall bathe 
5 his flesh in water, and put them on. And he shall take 
of the congregation of the children of Israel two he-goats 
6 for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And 
Aaron shall present the bullock of the sin offering, which 
is for himself, and make atonement for himself, and for 
» his house. And he shall take the two goats, and set 
8 Or, turban ; 





3-28. The ritual of the annual ceremony of purification and 
expiation. These verses, as has been briefly indicated, include 
two parallel and independent descriptions of this ceremony, each 
originally complete in itself, and now corresponding in the main 
to verses 3°, 5-10, and verses 11-28 respectively. 

4. This verse breaks the connexion between 3° and 5 ff., and 
may have belonged originally to P®’s directions as to the High 
Priest’s entry (cf. 12f.). The latter is to lay aside on this occasion 
his ornate and semi-regal vestments (viii. 7ff.), and to put on ‘the 
holy garments’ of white linen, the symbol of purity. He is to 
enter the presence of the Deity as a humble suppliant. 


5-10. Read by itself, without regard to the rest of the chapter, 
this section will be found to give a complete, if summary, descrip- 
tion of a simple and antique purgation ceremony. The latter 
consists of three parts: (1) the sacrifice of a bullock as a sin- 
offering for the priesthood—how could Aaron be said ‘to make 
atonement for himself and for his house’ without slaying and 
offering the victim ?—(2) the sacrifice of a goat, determined by lot, 
as a sin-offering for the people (note the explicit words of 9°); 
(3) the sending away, after certain rites had been performed over 
him, of a second, live, goat to ‘ Azazel, into the wilderness.’ As 
has been already pointed out, the verses have been retained by 
the final editor as giving a summary of the more detailed ritual of 
verses 11-28, a purpose clearly foreign to the intention of their 
author. 


LEVITICUS 16: 8-11.) B 113 


“them before the Lorp at the door of the tent of meet- 
ing. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; 8 


one lot for the Lorp, and the other lot for ® Azazel. 


'And Aaron shall present the goat upon which the lot 9 


fell for the Lorn, and offer him for a sin offering. But 
the goat, on which the lot fell for Azazel, shall be set 
alive before the Lorn, to make atonement » for him, to 
send him away for Azazel into the wilderness. And 
Aaron shall present the bullock of the sin offering, which 


is for himself, and shall make atonement for himself, 


a eee 


and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin 


* Or, dismissal > Or, over 








8. the other lot for Azazel: a mysterious demon or spirit of 


_ the desert (cf. xvii. 7), of which the name, origin, and significance 
are alike matters of conjecture. In later Jewish literature (Bcok 


of Enoch) Azazel appears as the prince of the fallen angels, the 


offspring of the unions described in Gen. vi. 1 ff. The familiar 


rendering ‘scapegoat,’ i.e. the goat which is allowed to escape, 
goes back to the caper emirssarius of the Vulgate, and is based on 
an untenable etymology. The same applies to the marginal 
rendering ‘dismissal.’ 

10. to make atonement for him: render, ‘to perform over 
him (so margin) the expiatory rites’; these were probably similar 
to those described in verse 21, but here they are assumed to be 
known by tradition to the officiating priest. This fact, together 
with the presence of the antique rite of sin-transference (sce on 
xiv. 7), suggests that we have to do here not with a late post-exilic 
innovation, as is the current critical view, but with the reintroduc- 
tion of an early purification rite, in use in former days at the local 
sanctuaries, to which, as it happens, no reference has been pre- 
served in the pre-exilic literature. Have we here, then, a fresh 
illustration of the paradox that there are no inventions in ritual, 


- only survivals? See the more detailed treatment of the origin and 


history of the rite in Note A. 


11-28. With verse 11 we enter the full stream of the Jater and 
more developed ritual of the Day of Atonement. That we have 


here a parallel to the older rite above described is seen from the 


verbatim repetition of verse 6. By the addition of the words ‘he 
Shall kill,’ &c., in rz” and 15%, the previous instructions of verse 6 
and the still more explicit command of 9” are made to appear as 


I 


el 


10 


12 


T4 


15 


114 LEVITICUS 16. 12-15. P 


offering which is for himself: and he shall take a censer 
full of coals of fire from off the altar before the Lorn, 
and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and 
bring it within the veil: and he shall put the incense 
upon the fire before the Lorn, that the cloud of the 
incense may cover the mercy-seat that is upon the testi- 
mony, that he die not: and he shall take of the blood 
of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the 
mercy-seat on the east ; and before the mercy-seat shall 
he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. 
Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for 
the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do 





merely pointing forward to the section we have now reached. 
Here, too, the expiatory rites, in the strict sense, are accomplished 
by three stages, detailed in verses 11-14, 15-19, 20-22 respectively, 
which are followed by certain concluding ceremonies (23-28). 
The first stage embraces three separate ‘actions,’ the slaughter of 
the priests’ sin-offering, the incensing of the inner sanctuary, and 
the manipulation of the blood, likewise ‘ within the veil.’ 

12%. The High Priest’s first entry into the inner sanctuary. 
The mercy-seat, or propitiatory (see Bennett, Cent. Bible, Exod. xxv. 
17 ff.), as the earthly throne of the divine King (Exod. xxv. 22), 
whom to see is death (7b., xxxiii. 20), must be veiled with a cloud 
of incense before the blood is brought in. ‘The testimony’ is 
here, as Num. xvii. 4, the ‘ark of the testimony,’ so called because 
it contained ‘the tables of the testimony,’ as the decalogue is 
termed by P. 

14. The High Priest’s second entry with the blood of his sin- 
offering. The unique character of the Day of Atonement is 
nowhere more significantly expressed than by the provision, con- 
fined to its solemn ritual, that the blood of the sin-offerings (see 
verse 15) is to be brought into the immediate presence of God, 
and sprinkled upon His throne. Even in the case of the higher 
grade of the ordinary sin-offering, the blood is brought no farther 
than the outer sanctuary ‘before the veil’ (iv.6, 17); on the great 
day of national expiation alone is it brought ‘ within the veil.’ 


15-19. The second stage of the ceremony, in which by means 
of the blood of the people’s sin-offering, the goat on which the 
‘lot for Yahweh’ had fallen, the inner sanctuary—here termed 
‘the holy place,’—the outer sanctuary—here termed ‘the tent of 


LEVITICUS 16. 16-18. P 115 


with his blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, 
and sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat, and before the 
-mercy-seat: and he shall make atonement for the holy 
place, because of the uncleannesses of the children of 
Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their 
sins: and so shall he do for the tent of meeting, that 
-dwelleth with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. 

And there shall be no man in the tent of meeting when 
he goeth in to make atonement in the holy place, until 
he come out, and have made atonement for himself, and 
for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel. 
And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the 
Lorp, and make atonement for it; and shall take of 
the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, 
and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. 


meeting’ (see above).—and the altar of burnt-offering are in suc- 
cession cleansed and hallowéd ‘from the uncleannesses of the 
children of Israel” (verse 19). Underlying this stage of the ritual 
we have the now familiar conception of the physical contagion of 
sin and uncleanness. The infection has passed to the sanctuary 
from the people among whom it dwelt (verse 16), and the resulting 
defilement has to be annually removed by the application of the 
most potent cathartic of the Jewish ritual, the blood of the special 
sin-offering. The lustration ceremonies of the Greek and Roman 
religions offer many parallels. For the idea of cleansing and 
purification—the expiatio of the Vulgate—here conveyed by the 
verb (2ipper) rendered ‘ make atonement for,’ see the note on iv. 20 
(note esp. Ezek. xliii. 20, 26, A.V., there cited). Ezekiel has two 
days of ‘atonement,’ that is, two purification ceremonies, for his 
temple, one in the first and the other in the seventh month (alv. 
18 ff). 

i5. The High Priest’s ‘hird entry ‘ within the veil.’ 

18. He shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD: 
this can be no other than the altar of burnt-offering, as in verse 12; 
its purification carried with it that of the court of the Tabernacle in 
which it stood. For harmonistic reasons this verse has been 
wrongly supposed to refer to the similar rite which Exod. xxx. 10 
prescribes for the altar of incense ; this altar, however, is mentioned 
only in the latest strata of P (see art. ‘Tabernacle’ in DB., iv.664, 
and note that in verse 12 a censer is still used). 


12 


6 


bet 


20 


21 


22 


any sah 
116 LEVITICUS 16. 19-22. P see's 


And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his 
finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from 
the uncleannesses of the children of Israel. And when 
he hath made an end of atoning for the holy place, and 
the tent of meeting, and the altar, he shall present the 
live goat: and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the 
head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniqui- 
ties of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, 
even all their sins ; and he shall put them upon the head 
of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a 
man *that is in readiness into the wilderness: and the 
goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a 
solitary land: and he shall let go the goat in the wilder- 
2 Or, appointed 


20-22. The third stage of the ritual of expiation, the confession 
by the High Priest of the people’s sins and their solemn trans- 
ference to the head of a living goat—that on which the ‘lot for 
Azazel’ had fallen—by which they are carried away ‘ unto a solitary 
land.’ - 

21. and confess over him all the iniquities, &c.: opinion is 
divided as to the interpretation of these words, some taking them 
in their literal sense and maintaining that ‘ the sacrifices of this day 
made atonement for all sins of every kind, whether done involun- 
tarily or deliberately’; others with more reason hold that the 
words must be interpreted in the light of ‘the general theory of 
the priestly legislation,’ according to which the sin-offering made 
expiation only for sins committed ‘ unwittingly,’ not for those com- 
mitted ‘with a high hand’ (for this distinction see note on iv. 2, 
and more fully Driver’s art. ‘ Atonement, Day of,’ in DB., i. 20r f.). 
The words of the High Priest’s confession at a Jater date are given 
in the Mishna treatise Youd, vi. 2 (quoted by Driver, of. cit.). 

he shall put them upon the head of the goat: for this 
widely spread conception of sin-transference, see the authorities 
cited in the note on xiv. 7, where we find the closest analogy to 
the rite of the ‘scapegoat.’ 

22. the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into 
a solitary land: in later times the goat was led to a lofty precipice 
in the wilderness about 12 miles east of Jerusalem, over which it 
was thrown backwards, to be dashed in pieces on the rocks below 
( Yoma, vi.6ff.). The idea here is that the uncleanness caused by 


LEVITICUS 16. 23-29. P 117 


ness. And Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting, 
and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on 
“when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them 
there: and he shall bathe his flesh in water in a holy 
place, and put on his garments, and come forth, and 
offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the 
people, and make atonement for himself and for the 
people. And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn 
upon the altar. And he that letteth go the goat for 
Azazel shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in 
water, and afterward he shall come into the camp. And 
the bullock of the sin offering, and ihe goat of the sin 
offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement 
in the holy place, shall be carried forth without the 
camp; and they shall burn in the fire their skins, and 
their flesh, and their dung. And he that burneth them 
shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and 
afterward he shall come into the camp. 

And it shall be a statute for ever unto you: in the 
seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall 








the sins of the year was not merely symbolically but physically 
conveyed from the holy land of Yahweh into a iand unclean and 
the habitation of the spirits of uncleanness. 

23-25. That the essential cxpiatory rites have now been 
accomplished—verse 25 and the last clause of verse 24 are later 
glosses—is seen in the removal by the High Priest of ‘the holy 
garments,’ which remained permanently in the tent of meeting. 
The motive for this procedure is that given by Ezek. xliv. 19: it is 
a precaution against the dangerous contagion of holiness (for 
Arabian parallels, see Rel. Sem.*, 451 f.), which also explains the 
ritual of the bath prescribed in verses 4 and 24; cf. also 28. 

26. On precisely the same line of primitive thought identical 
precautions are prescribed against the contagion of uncleanness. 


29-34. An entirely independent law, addressed to the people, 
fixing the date and containing other important provisions for the 
observance of the Day of Atonement (cf. xxiii. 26-32). 

29, in the seventh month: reckoning from Nisan (Exod. xii. 2) 


23 


25 


28 


a9 


ee ht aaa 
“a t 
t * 


118 LEVITICUS 16. 30-34. P 


- 


afflict your souls, and shall do no manner of work, 
the homeborn, or the stranger that sojourneth among 
30 you: for on this day shall atonement be made for you, 
to cleanse you; from all your sins shall ye be clean 
31 before the Lorp. It is a sabbath of solemn rest unto 
you, and ye shall afflict your souls; it is a statute for 
32 ever. And the priest, who shall be anointed and who 
shall be consecrated to be priest in his father’s stead, 
shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen 
33 garments, even the holy garments: and he shall make 
atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make 
atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar; 
and he shall make atonement for the priests and for 
34 all the people of the assembly. And this shall be an 
everlasting statute unto you, to make atonement for the 
children of Israel because of all their sins once in the 
year. And he did as the Lorp commanded Moses. 


the seventh month is Tishri, corresponding approximately to 
October, according to the phases of the moon. 

ye shall afflict your souls: ‘the phrase denotes the self- 
denial and abstention accompanying a fast’ (Driver). This is the 
only fast commanded in the Pentateuch, hence in N.T. times the 
Day of Atonement was also termed ‘the Fast’ (Acts xxvii. 9). 

30. A striking confirmation of the view advocated in this com- 
mentary that the idea of purification from sin, conceived as unclean- 
ness, gives the key to the priestly theory of ‘ atonement.’ 

81. a sabbath of solemn rest: Heb shabbath shabbathon, 
‘a sabbath of sabbatical observance,’ an expression peculiar to the 
priestly writings, and applied originally to the weekly Sabbath 
(Exod. xxxi. 15; Lev. xxiii. 3, &c.), Cf. xxiii. 32, as here of ‘the 
Day,’ also xxv. 4, of the sabbatical year. 

33. the holy sanctuary: a unique designation of the most holy 
place of the Tabernacle (see on verse 2), explained by the difference 
of source. 

34. The closing sentence has no relevance here. It may have 
been the close of the original kernel from P®. 

For the importance of the Day of Atonement for the religious 
life of Judaism, see the additional Note A at the end of the 
volume, 


LEVITICUS 17—26 119 


Pourth Division. CyHaprers XVII—XXVI. 
Tue Ho.rness Cope. 


Ir has long been recognized that the contents of these ten 
chapters are distinguished from the main body of P by peculiari- 
ties of expression, by differences in the formulation of the laws, 
and by certain characteristic ideas, which together give this section 
an individuality of its own, and mark it out as am independent 
law-code. From the stress laid on the holiness of Yahweh as the 
motive for the attainment of holiness, moral and ceremonial, on 
the part of His people, the appropriate name of the Holiness 
Code, or Law of Holiness, is now given to this division of 
Leviticus. 

The leading features of the Holiness Code (symbol H), and the 
problems which it presents to the student of the Pentateuch, have 
been discussed in some detail in the Introduction, The con- 
clusions there adopted may be thus summarized: (1) the author 
of H-was a-priest living probably in the closing decadéS~of the 
monarchy, at a time when the reform movement inaugurated by 
the publication of D had spent its force; (2) the code was com- 
piled Jargely from pre-existing literary material derived from 
more than one sotirce, as is shown by the duplication of several 
enactments (cf. especially chaps xvili and xx); (3) H was 
incorporated, with modifications and additions, into the main body 
of the priestly legislation (P®) by a redactor (R?) working from 
the standpoint of the latter. While the three stages thus indi- 
cated afford the most probable solution of the literary problems 
presented by chapters xvii—xxvi, it is no longer possible, in every 
case, to distinguish with certainty the several strata. 

A logical subdivision of the contents of these chapters is im- 
practicable, owing to the great variety of topics dealt with and 
the lack of systematic arrangement. In the notes the following 
sections—the contents of which are summarized below—have 
been adopted for convenience: (@) xvii, (0) xvili—xx, (¢) xxi— 
xxii, (d) xxiii—xxv, (¢) xxvi. 


(a) xvii. Laws relating to sacrifice and kindred topics. 

Like the earier legislative codes, the Book of the Covenant and 
.D, the Holiness Code opens with a section devoted to sacrifice, 
and closes with an address (chap. xxvi) urging obedience to the 
preceding laws (cf. Exod. xx. 24-26, and xxiii. 20-33; Deut. xii 
and xxviii). This opening section of H now contains five dis- 
tinct enactments, of which four are introduced by the Reel 
‘whatsoever man there.be-of the house (children) of Israel that. 
(verses 3, 8, 10, 13). The fifth has an entirely different formula- 
tion, and on "other grounds as well must have had a different origin. 
Of the preceding four, the first enactment (3-7), as will presently 


17 


w 


’ ‘ pe ae “4 


120 LEVITICUS 17. 1-3. H , 


[H] And the Lorn spake unto Moses, saying, Speak 
unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto all the children of 
Israel, and say unto them; This is the thing which the 
Lorpv hath commanded, saying, What man soever there 
be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or 








appear, has been considerably expanded from the form in which 
it was originally formulated. 

17. An introduction partly at least, if not wholly, from the 
hand of the editcr who incorporated H with PS; note P’s charac- 
teristic phrase ‘Aaron and his sons’—in H the rank and file of 
the priesthood are the ‘brethren’ of the High Priest (xxi. 10)— 
and the unusual ‘ association of priesthood and laity in legislative 
address’ (cf. xxii, 18). 


3-7. The first of the five enactments above referred to, in 
which it is laid down (1) that every act of slaughtering a domestic 
animal for food is a sacrificial act; (2) that sacrifice must be 
offered to Yahweh alone; and (3) that only at the one central 
sanctuary can such sacrifice be legitimately offered. The last two 
requirements, it will be observed, are the spécial subject of the 
second enactment in verses 8and 9. This fact, together with the 
presumption that the latter verses in their concise formulation 
approach more nearly to the original form of the laws of this 
section, suggests that the preceding verses have undergone con- 
siderable editorial expansion. Originally, in all probability, the 
law merely embodied in juristic form the antique Semitic concep- 
tion that all slaughter was sacrifice, and may have run as follows: 
‘Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel that killeth (for 
food) an ox or a lamb or a goat, and hath not brought it before 
Yahweh, blood shall be imputed to that man... his people.’ The 
observance of such a law, the existence of which as a part of the 
customary law of the Hebrews is vouched for by the early narra- 
tive 1 Sam, xiv. 32-35, was only possible under the monarchy 
so long as the village sanctuaries or ‘high places’ were recognized 
as legitimate places of sacrificial worship (cf. the early law of 
Exod. xx. 24). t ‘ > 

For the compiler of H, however, these latter were illegitimate 
(see xxvi. 30), and he seems to have given the law a new applica- 
tion by taking the verb ‘to kill’ in the sense of sacrificial slaughter, 
by limiting the place of worship to the témple through.the in- 
sertion of ‘the dwelling of’ before Yahweh in verse 4, and by 
adding the new motive in verses 5 and 7 (for which see notes 
below). The result, as has been said, has been to anticipate the 
provisions of the second enactment (verses 8f.). It must be added 


LEVITICUS 17. 4-7. H 121 


goat, in the camp, or that killeth it without the camp, and 4 
hath not brought it unto the door of the tent of meeting, 
to offer it as an oblation unto the Lorp before the taber- 
nacle of the Lorp: blood shall be imputed unto that 
man ; he hath shed blood ; and that man shall be cut off 
from among his people: to the end that the children of 5 
Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they sacrifice in 
the open field, even that they may bring them unto the 
Lorp, unto the door of the tent of meeting, unto the 
priest, and sacrifice them for sacrifices of peace offerings 
unto the Lorp. And the priest shall sprinkle the blood 6 
upon the altar of the Lorp at the door of the tent of 
meeting, and burn the fat for a sweet savour unto the 
Lorp. And they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices 7 
unto the *he-goats, after whom they go a whoring. This 
2 Or, saiyrs 


i 





that other explanations have been given of the history and meaning 
of these difficult verses. 

All critical scholars, however, recognize that the law as formu- 
lated in H received considerable additions from the priestly editor 
(RP) with a view to accommodate the law more completely to the 
presuppositions of P’s legislation. Such are the references to 
the wilderness camp (verse 3), ‘the door of the tent of meeting’ 

~ (4ff., cf. 9), and the everlasting statute of 7°—all well-known 
characteristics of P. The ritual directions of verse 6 are also 
_more in the style of P than of H. 

4. blood shall be imputed: ‘blood’ is here used in the sense 
of ‘the guilt of blood,’ as in Deut. xxi. 8, ‘and the blood shall be 
forgiven them,’ and Psalm li. 14, ‘deliver us from blood-guiltiness’ 
(literally ‘from blood’). 

cut off from among his people: see note on Vii. 20. 

5. The result of editorial expansion is very evident in the 
awkward construction of this verse—‘that the children of Israel 
may bring. . . even that they may bring. .. tent of meeting’; 
the latter clause from RP (see above). 

7. the he-goats: margin ‘satyrs,’ as in the text of Isa. xiii. 21, 
XXxiv. 14, goat-shaped demons of the desert, the Hebrew counter- 
parts of the Arabian jim, and of the satyrs and fauns of classical 
mythology. According to the original text of 2 Kings xxiii. 8 
(see Skinner, Cent. Bible iu loc.), these satyrs were publicly 


8 


Io 


II 


T2 


122 LEVITICUS 17. 8-12. H : . 


shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their 
generations. 

And thou shalt say unto them, Whatsoever man there 
be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn 
among them, that offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice, 
and bringeth it not unto the door of the tent of meeting, 
to sacrifice it unto the Lorp; even that man shall be 
cut off from his people. 

And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, 
or of the strangers that sojourn among them, that eateth 
any manner of blood; I will set my face against that 
soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among 
his people. For the *life of the flesh is in the blood: 
and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atone- 
ment for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh 
atonement by reason of the “life. Therefore I said unto 


the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, 
* Heb. sozel. 


worshipped in Jerusalem in the days of Josiah. From the refer- 
ences in Jeremiah and Ezekiel—see especially the classical passage 
Ezek, viii—it is evident that there was a vigorous recrudescence 
of forbidden cults in the closing years of the Jewish monarchy 
(cf. on xx. 2 below), the period to which - compilation of _ 
the Holiness Code probably belongs, 

after whom they go a whoring: this ean expression is 
frequently employed by Hebrew writers, from Exod. xxxiy. 15 f. 
onwards, in the sense of religious infidelity, the worship of other 
deities than Yahweh. 

&f. Yahweh is the sole object of worship both for the native 
Israelite and for ‘the strangers (lit. ‘sojourners’) that sojourn 
among them.’ The gér or sojourner was a non-Israelite admitted 
to a modified civil and religious status, with corresponding rights 
and duties. In the original forah verse 9 probably ran: ‘and 
bringeth it not to sacrifice it unto Yahweh,’ &c. 

10-12. The third enactment reinforces the universal prohibition 
of the eating of blood (iii. 17, vii. 26f.), so frequently emphasized 
by the Hebrew legislators, see Gen. ix. 4 (P); Deut. xii. 16, 
23-25, xv. 23 (D); Lev. xix. 26 (also H). Down to the present 
day this prohibition has been scrupulously observed by the Jews, 


LEVITICUS 17. 13-15. H 123 


neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you 
eat blood. 

And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, 
or of the strangers that sojourn among them, which 
taketh in hunting any beast or fowl that may be eaten; 
he shall pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with 
dust. For as‘to the life of all flesh, the blood thereof is 
all one with the life thereof: therefore I said unto the 
children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner 
of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: 
whosoever eateth it shall be cut off. And every soul 
that eateth *that which dieth of itself, or that which is 

* Heb. a carcase. 





who take elaborate precautions to secure that all flesh intended 
for human food shall be thoroughly drained of its blood. 

The interest of this passage, however, centres in the explana- 
tion of the universal blood taboo given in verse rr. The blood 
which contains ‘the life,’ literally ‘the soul’ or principle of life 
(cf. Gen. ix. 4; Deut. xii. 23, and verse 14 of this chapter), is 
’ withdrawn from ordinary use as an article of food, because it has 
been reserved by God for a special and sacred purpose. By 
divine appointment blood is the medium for the expiation of the sins 
of men. It ‘makes atonement,’ however, not gud blood, but ‘by 
reason of the life,’ i. e. i virtue of the life that is in it (contrast the 
false rendering of A.V. here). The Hebrew lawgiver does not 
take the final step and explain how the life that is in the blood 
makes expiation ; in other words the so-called substitutionary theory 
of the atonement, the principle of a life for a life, is not explicitly 
taught in this passage, although the thought lies near (see further 
the discussion on pp. 51-53 above, and the writer’s art. ‘ Sacri- 
fice ’ in Hastings’s DB. (1909), 816-818). 

13. The fourth enactment is merely a special application of 
the preceding to the case of clean beasts and birds caught in 
hunting, but inadmissible as sacrificial victims (see p. 36). The 
blood in this case is to be allowed to flow away freely, and then 
to be covered with earth, the latter an additional prescription to 
the parallel command in Deut. xii. 16, 24. 

14. The text of the first clause is improved by omitting a 
single word with LXX and Vulg. and reading: ‘ for the life of all 
flesh is the blood thereof’; cf. verse rr. 


, 


15, The closing enactment, probably from RP—note the dif- 


14 


on 


16 


182 


124 LEVITICUS 17. 6—18.2. H = 


& 


torn of beasts, whether he be homeborn or a stranger, he 
shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and 
be unclean until the even: then shall he be clean. But 
if he wash them not, nor bathe his flesh, then he shall 
bear his iniquity. ; Uh, 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 








ferent introduction, ‘ every soul that . . .,—deals with two varieties 
of forbidden flesh, for which the technical terms are nébhélah and 
téréphah. The former corresponds to the Scots ‘braxy,’ applied 
to sheep, and denotes the fiesh of an animal that has succumbed 
to organic disease and died a natural death. The latter is ‘torn 
flesh, as explained in the text. Both categories are here tabooed, 
clearly on the ground that in neither case was the flesh properly 
drained of its blood. The legislator, however, seems not to intend 
an absolute prohibition, provided the eater timeously removes the 
uncleanness he has contracted. In any case, the law as here 
formulated is more stringent than in Deut. xiv. 21, which limits 
the prohibition of ‘braxy’ to the native Israelite. See Driver's 
Deuteronomy 164 ff., where the mutual relation of the various 
laws on this subject is discussed, and cf. xi. 39f. above. 


(6) xviili—xx. Laws relating chiefly to social morality. 


In this section of the Holiness Code the legislator passes from 


the laws of the cultus to the foundation principles of social 
morality. The first place among these is given to the institution 
of marriage, and the degrees within which it is to be permitted. 
Chastity and other religious and moral duties are enforced, the 
latter particularly in chap. xix. The method adopted by the 
author of the code (R") is best seen in chaps. xviii and xx. In 
these, two originally independent but parallel series of orth, 
whose comparative antiquity is reflected in their terse formulation 
and in the use of the second person singular, have been taken up 
by R# and fitted each with an introductory exhortation and a con- 
cluding admonition (see below), distinguished from the earlier 
laws by the plural form of address. In these parenetic passages 
the ideas and expressions which give so distinctive a character to 
the Holiness Code are specially prominent. The hand of R? is 
much less in evidence in chaps. xviii-xx than in chap. xvii; the 
opening verses of each chapter are in whole or in part from his 
pen (note especially ‘the congregation of the children of Israel’ 
in xix, 2, a characteristic of P). 


xviii. 1-5. An exhortation introductory to the main body of the 
laws (6-23). As framed by R® it began and ended with the 


—- 


LEVITICUS 18. 3-6 125 


the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the Lorp 
your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, 
wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings 
of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not 
do: neither shall ye walk in their statutes. My judge- 
ments shall ye do, and my statutes shall ye keep, to walk 
therein: I am the Lorp your God. Ye shall therefore 
keep my statutes, and my judgements: which if a man 
do, he shall live *in them: I am the Lorp. 

None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin 


* Or, by 





solemn reminder, ‘I (am) Yahweh.’ This expression is found 
about fifty times in ali in the Holiness Code, sometimes alone, as 
in verses 5, 21 of this chapter, and eight times in chap. xix ; more 
frequently with a qualifying addition, such as ‘I (am) Yahweh, 
your (their) God’ (xviii. 2, 4, 30, and elsewhere); or ‘I (am) 
Yahweh who sanctifieth you’ (xx. 8, and xxi. 8, &c.); or again in 
the form ‘I, Yahweh (your God), am holy’ (xix. 2, xx. 26). This 
continually recurring emphasis of the name and attributes of 
Israel’s covenant God gives a peculiar solemnity to the demands 
of the Holiness Code. These may be ‘summarily comprehended ’ 
in the words of xix. 2: ‘Ye shall be holy: for I Yahweh your 
God am holy.’ The converse of this demand is the summons to 
* abjure the abominations of the heathen neighbours of Israel, and 
in particular those of the former inhabitants of Canaan, whom 
Yahweh had ‘cast out from before’ His people (xviii. 3, 24 ff, 
Nox. 22 f,). 

5. ae live in them: rather, as margin, ‘by them’; cf. 
Ezek. xx. II, 13, 21. 


6-23. The main body of ancient laws (/6rdt/) adopted by R5, 
The greater number have their parallels in xx. 10-21, where specific 
penalties are attached. (For the mutual relation of the two series 
see the introductory note to chap. xx.) The simplest division is 
into two groups, viz. : (1) verses 6-18, the so-called ‘ forbidden 
degrees,’ or the relationships within which marriage is condemned ; 
and (2) verses 19-23, other breaches of sexual morality. A more 
elaborate arrangement in two decalogues has been proposed 
(L. B. Paton, ‘The original form of Leviticus xvii-xix, in Jom. 
of Bib. Lit., xvi. [1897], pp. 45-52), each decalogue consisting of: 
two pentades, thus: 


© 


1260 LEVITICUS 18, 32g. Gee 


‘to him, to uncover ¢Ae/r nakedness: I am the Lorp. 
7 The nakedness of thy father, even the nakedness of thy 
mother, shalt thou not uncover : she is thy mother ; thou 
g shalt not uncover her nakedness. The nakedness of thy 
father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s 
g nakedness. The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter 


First decalogue: Purity inthose related through parents and children. 

First pentade: Kinship of the first degree, xviii. 6, 7, 8, 9, ro. 

Second pentade: Kinship of the second degree, xviii. 11, 12, 
13, I4, 15. 

Second decalogue: Purity in remoter relationship. 

First pentade: Relationship through marriage, xviii. 16, 17%, 
17”, 18, I9. 

Second pentade’ Outside the family, xviii. 20, 21, 22, 23%, 23. 


This arrangement, however, breaks up the homogeneous group 
with identical formulation, comprised in verses 6-18, and is open 
to other objections, 

6. to uncover their nakedness: a common euphemism for 
sexual intercourse, both licit and illicit. Here the marriage 
relation is in view, and the following laws are directed against 
incestuous marriages. In modern English the verse may be 
paraphrased thus: ‘No Hebrew shall contract a marriage with 
a woman who is a blood relation ’ (literally, ‘ flesh of his flesh’). 

7-18. The female relatives with whom a man may not contract 
a lawful marriage are now enumerated one by one. They are his 
mother (verse 7), step-mother (8), full sister and half-sister (9, 
11), granddaughter (10), aunt on the father’s side (12), aunt on 
the mother’s side (13), aunt by marriage on the father’s side (14), 
daughter in-law (15), sister-in-law (16), step-daughter and stép- 
granddaughter (17), and finally two sisters at the same time (18). 
The most striking omission is that of a man’s own daughter, but 
this is almost certainly due to a slip of a copyist in verse 10, where 
we should read: ‘The nakedness of thy daughter and of thy 
son’s daughter,’ &c. 

It is important to note that male Israelites are addressed through- 
out, and that accordingly the ‘ nakedness’ of the text is primarily 
that of the opposite sex. But inasmuch as by marriage husband 
and wife become ‘ one flesh’ (Gen. ii. 24), the nakedness of the 
latter is identified with that of the former. This is seen especially 
in the formulation of verse 7, where the context supports the 
rendering ‘even’ of R. V. as against the ‘or’ of A. V. 

9. There is good evidence that this verse should run: * The 
nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy mother, ... even her 


LEVITICUS 18. 10-17, H 127 


of thy father, or the daughter of thy mother, whether 
born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness 
thou shalt not uncover. The nakedness of thy son’s 
daughter, or of thy daughter’s daughter, even their naked- 
ness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own 
nakedness. ‘The nakedness of thy father’s wife’s daughter, 
begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not 
uncover her nakedness. Thou shalt not uncover the 
nakedness of thy father’s sister: she is thy father’s near 
kinswoman. ‘Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness 


12 


13 


of thy mother’s sister: for she is thy mother’s near . 
kinswoman. ‘Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of 14 


thy father’s brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: 
she is thine aunt. ‘Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness 
of thy daughter in law: she is thy son’s wife; thou shalt 
not uncover her nakedness. Thou shalt not uncover 
the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s 


15 


16 


nakedness. ‘Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of 17 


a woman and her daughter; thou shalt not take her 
son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover 





nakedness,’ &c. The reference is thus to uterine sisters only ; 
the half-sister by a different mother is the subject of verse 11. 

whether born at home, or born abroad: the former phrase 
indicates a full sister, the latter a half-sister by the same mother 
but a different father. 

14. The corresponding case of the aunt by marriage on the 
mother’s side is passed over, probably by inadvertence. On the 
other hand, from the legislator’s silence as to uncle and niece, it is 
to be inferred that such marriages were permitted. The parents 
of Moses, according to Num. xxvi. 59, were related as nephew 
and aunt, 

16. Here the prohibition of marriage with a deceased brother’s 
wife is absolute. The Jaw of Deut. xxv. 5-10, on the contrary, 
sanctions the old Hebrew custom (see Gen. xxxviii), which 
required the brother of a man who had died without issue to 
marry his widow, the so-called ‘levirate’ marriage (from Lat. 
leviy, a husband’s brother). See Ruth i. rr ff, Matt. xxii. 23 ff. 


< . as 


128 LEVITICUS 18. 18-26. H Were 


her nakedness; they are near kinswomen: it is ® wicked. 
18 ness. And thou shalt not take a woman to her sister, to 
be a rival /o her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the 
ry Other in her life time. And thou shalt not approach 
unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she 
20 is bimpure by her uncleanness. And thou shalt not lie ~ 
. carnally with thy neighbour’s wife, to defile thyself with 
21 her. And thou shalt not give any of thy seed ¢to make 
them pass through ¢he fire to Molech, neither shalt thou 
22 profane the name of thy God: I am the Lorp. Thou 
shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is 
23 abomination. And thou shalt not lie with any beast to 
defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand 
before a beast, to lie down thereto: it is confusion. 
a4 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in 
all these the nations are defiled which I cast out from 
25 before you: and the land is defiled: therefore I do visit 
the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomiteth out 
26 her inhabitants. Ye therefore shall keep my statutes 


2 Or, enormity > Or, separated for 
© Or, to set them apart to Molech 





18. to be a rival to her : rather, ‘asa fellow-wife.’ Itisnow 
illegitimate for a man to have two sisters in marriage at the same 
time, as in the familiar case of the patriarch Jacob from an earlier 
age. This verse, accordingly, has no bearing on the deceased 
wife’s sister controversy. 

21. On this prohibition of Molech worship see on xx. @ f. 

22f. The penalty for the unnatural crimes of sodomy (Gen. 
xix..5; Rom. i. 27) and bestiality was death to all concerned 
(Rey, xx.13, 15 f. cf. Exod. xxii. 19). 

23. it is confusion: ‘a violation of nature or of the divine 
order’ (Dillmann), an unnatural crime; only here and xx, 12. 


24-30. The compiler’s parenetic conahesnae to the preceding 
laws, in the form of an exhortation to lay to heart the fate of the 
former inhabitants of Canaan, whose ‘abominable customs’ (verse 
30) brought about their utter annihilation. 

25. the land vomiteth out her inhabitants: this figurative 
use of the verb is peculiar to H (cf. xx. 22), The verbs of this 


LEVITICUS 18. 27—19.3. H 129 


and my judgements, and shall not do any of. these 
abominations; neither the homeborn, nor the stranger 
that sojourneth among you: (for all these abominations 
have the men of the land done, which were before you, 
and the land is defiled ;) that the land vomit not you out 
also, when ye defile it, as it vomited out the nation that 
was before you. For whosoever shall do any of these 
abominations, even the souls that do them shall be cut 


off from among their people. ‘Therefore shall ye keep ; 


my charge, that ye do not any of these abominable 
customs, which were done before you, and that ye defile 
not yourselves therein: I am the Lorp your God. 


And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say 
unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lorp your God 
am holy. Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his 
father, and ye shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lorp 








verse are really in the past tense: ‘ therefore I visited .. . and the 
land vomited out,’ &c., an interesting ‘anachronism of the com- 
piler’ (Driver), 


‘Chap. xix contains a brief manual of moral instruction, perhaps 
the best representation of the ethics of ancient Israel’ (Moore). 
Parallels to most of its contents are found elsewhere in the 
Pentateuch, as in the Decalogue, Exod. xx, Deut. v (verses 3 f. 
recall the precepts of piety of the first table, 11-18 the precepts 
of probity of the second table), in the Book of the Covenant (cf. 
Exod. xxii. 18 ff., xxiii. 1-19), and in Deut. xxii-xxv. Verse 2, 
prefixed by R, gives the underlying motive of the whole {see 
above, p. 119). The holiness of God’s people is to be manifested 
both positively and negatively ; positively by'a wholesome fear 
of Yahweh (verses 14, 32) and by humane treatment, culminating 
in whole-hearted love, of the fellow-members of the theocratic 
community (9 ff. and esp. 17 f.) ; negatively by the abhorrence of 
idols and idol-worship (4), and of all other heathen practices 
(esp. 26-29). 

3f, a condensed reproduction of the first, second, fourth, and 
fifth commands of the Decalogue in inverted order, An ingenious 


K 


28 


wy) 


w 
° 


19 2 


ate ay. 
130 LEVITICUS 19.4-11 HO . 


4 your God. Turn ye not unto “idols, nor make to your- 
5 selves molten gods: I am the Lorp your God. And 
when ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the 
6 LorD, ye shall offer it that ye may be accepted. It shall 
be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow: 
and if aught remain until the third day, it shall be burnt 
7 with fire. And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is 
8 an abomination ; it shall not be accepted: but every one 
that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath 
profaned the holy thing of the Lorn: ‘and that poe shall 
be cut off from his people. 
9 And when ye reap the harvest of your Lendl thou shalt 
not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou 
10 gather the gleaning of thy harvest. And thou shalt not 
glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather the fallen 
fruit of thy vineyard ; thou shalt leave them for the poor 
11 and for the stranger: I am the Lorp your God. Ye 


" Heb. things of nought. See Jer. xiv. 14. _ 


attempt has been made by Paton (Journ. of Bibl. Lit. xvi. [1897 
52 ff.) to supplement these verses from xxvi. 1 f., which he s 
‘as exhibiting the original form of the opening of this set of laws,’ 
and to bring the whole into greater conformity, both in order and 
subject-matter, with the first table of the Decalogue. 

5-8. A ritual section, which can scarcely have had a arenes 
originally in this summary of Israel’s religious and moral duties. 
A more appropriate place would have been in connexion with 
xxii. 29 f., the two sections being complementary. It is worthy 
of note that in H the thank-offering, or ‘ sacrifice of thanksgiving’ 
(see on vii. 12), is regarded as of co-ordinate rank with the peace- 
offering or sacrifice of. requital; while in the passage cited 
(from P*) it is reckoned as one of the three varieties of the latter. 

9f. The share of the poor and the landless in the corn and 
grape harvests, an extension of xxiii. 22, cf. Deut. xxiv. 19 ff. In 
all these ‘a humanitarian motive has replaced a primitive super- 
stition,’ found all the world over and not yet extinct (see P. 
Sébillot, Le Paganisme contemporain, 243), which regarded a part 
of the produce as due to the genii loci. Cf. S. A. Cook, The Laws 
Y Moses and the Code of Hammurabi, 196 f, 


LEVITICUS 19. 12-17. H 131 


shall not steal; neither shall ye deal falsely, nor lie one 
to another. And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, 
so that thou profane the name of thy God: I am the 
Lorp. Thou shalt not oppress thy neighbour, nor rob 
him: the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with 
thee all night until the morning. Thou shalt not curse 
the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but 
thou shalt fear thy God: I am the Lorp. Ye shall do 
no unrighteousness in judgement: thou shalt not respect 
the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the 
mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neigh- 
_ bour. Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer 

among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the 
blood of thy neighbour: I am the Lorp. Thou shalt 
not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt surely 
rebuke thy neighbour, and not bear sin because of him. 








11-18. Miscellaneous moral precepts allied to those contained 
in the second table of the Decalogue. The counterpart of the 
seventh commandment, here lacking, has been given in a greatly 
expanded form in chap. xviii; by nothing, according to Budde 
(Geschichte der althebr. Litieratur, 190), is the intimate connexion 
of the two chapters ‘so clearly demonstrated.’ 

14. thou shalt fear thy God, who is the avenger of the help- 
less; the deaf man cannot protect himself from the curse which 
he has not heard, nor can the blind man avoid the stumblingblock 
which he does not see. 

16. as a talebearer: or ‘with slanders,’ as the original is 
rendered in Jer. vi. 28. ‘Of no sin and wickedness are there 
so many complaints in the Old Testament as of slander and 
false accusation—whereof the Psalms are witness’ (Cornill, 
Jeremia, 89). Cf. Psalm ci. 5 and Cook of. cit. 102, 107 f. 

neither shalt thot stand against the blood of thy neigh- 
bour: i.e. thou shalt not bring a capital charge against him, 
especially, so the context implies, by means of a false and 
slanderous accusation. 

17. and not bear sin because of him: thou shalt not incur 
guilt on his account, either, as the preceding clauses show, by 
cherishing hatred against him, or by omitting to point out his 
faults. 


K 2 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


2 


_ 


132 LEVITICUS 19. 18+ar, (Et 


Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge 
against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love 
thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lorp, Ye shall 
keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender 
with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with 
two kinds of seed: neither shall there come upon thee 
a garment of two kinds of stuff mingled together. And 
whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bond- 
maid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, 
nor freedom given her; * they shall be punished; they 
shall not be put to death, because she was not free. 
And he shall bring his guilt offering unto the Lorp, unto 
® Heb. there shall be inquisition. 


18. thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: throughout 
this section the terms ‘brother,’ ‘people’ (lit. ‘kinsfolk”), ‘the 
children of thy people,’ ‘ neighbour’ are used synonymously ; it is 
thus the love of a fellow-Hebrew that is here enjoined. Even the 
extension of the precept in verse 34 to include the ger scarcely 
alters its limitation, for the gér was a fellow-worshipper of Israel’s 
God. It was Jesus who first gave the command a universal 
application (Luke x. 29 ff.). Nevertheless it is universally ad- 
mitted that in Lev. xix. 17, 18 we have reached the high-water 
mark of Old Testament ethics. 

19. The ideas underlying the threefold prohibition of this verse 
are obscure (see Driver, Intern. Crit. Comm., and Robinson, Cent. 
Bible, on the parallel passage, Deut. xxii. 9-11). The use of mules 
for riding (2 Sam. xiii. 29, xviii. 9; 1 Kings i. 33, &c.) shows that 
the first of the prohibitions was disregarded in early times. The 
word rendered ‘mingled together’ is found only here and in 
Deut. xxii. 11, where it is defined as ‘wool and linen together,’ 
probably a warp of flax with a weft of wool. This combination, 
according to Goldziher, was used by the Arabs for magical purposes. 
A similar usage probably accounts for its prohibition here. See 
further Cook, of. cét., 195 f. 

20. The contents and different formulation of this law suggest 
that it belongs properly to chap. xx, from which it was perhaps 
inadvertently omitted by a copyist, who placed it in the margin 
between the columns of his MS., whence it was wrongly transferred 
to its present position. 

21 f. are regarded by most commentators on internal grounds 
as a later addition in the spirit of R°. 


LEVITICUS 19. 22-26. H 133 


the door of the tent of meeting, even a ram for a guilt 
offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him 
with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lorp for his 
sin which he hath sinned: and he shall be forgiven for 
his sin which he hath sinned. And when ye shall come 
into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees 
for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as their 
uncircumcision: three years shall they be as uncircum- 
cised unto you; it shall not be eaten. But in the fourth 
year all the fruit thereof shall be holy, for giving praise 


23 


24 


unto the Lorp. And in the fifth year shall ye eat. of 25 


the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase 
thereof: I am the Lorp your God. Ye shall not eat 
any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchant- 





26 


23-25. The produce of a fruit-tree is taboo for the first three ; 


years; the produce of the fourth year is to be dedicated to 
Yahweh ; from the fifth year onwards the fruit is available for 
food (cf. Hammurabi, § 60). Here we have another of the 
numerous cases where an ancient custom is given a religious 
motive, and thereby brought into harmony with the higher re- 
ligious thought of the time, as was the case, for example, with 
the antique practice of attaching tassels to the four corners of the 
upper garment (see note on Num. xv. 37-41, originally i in H). 

23. shall they be as uncircumcised unto you: i.e. unclean, 
and therefore taboo. The analogy of similar practices elsewhere 
suggests that originally the fruit was taboo out of regard for the 
tutelary genius of the field (cf. on verses 9 f.). It is worth noting 
that the metaphorical use of ‘uncircumcised ’ here and elsewhere 
shows the untenableness of the view that the practice of circum- 
cision was of comparatively late introduction amceng the Hebrews 
(cf. ‘the uncircumcised heart’ of xxvi. 41). 

24. for giving praise: rather ‘for a praise-offering ’ to Yahweh 
(Driver). 


26-31. A series of prohibitions directed mainly against the 
adoption of Canaanite practices. 

26. For the first half of this verse see the notes on xvii. 10 ff. 
The second half should rather be rendered : ‘ ye shall not observe 
omens nor practice divination.” Augury, in the strict sense of 
taking omens from the flight of birds, does not seem to have been 


ie 2S . a AA 


134 LEVITICUS 19, 24-30. 


27 ments, nor practise augury. Ye shall not round the 
corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners 
28 of thy beard. Ye shall not make any cuttings im your 
flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am 
29 the Lorp. Profane not thy daughter, to make her 
a harlot; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land 
3° become full of * wickedness. Ye shall keep my sab- 
baths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lorp. 


* Or, enormity 





practised in Palestine. The attitude of the orthodox Jews to this 
mode of divination, which played so important a part in the life 
of the Greeks and Romans, is well illustrated by the story of the 
Jewish archer, Meshullam, recorded by Josephus on the authority 
of Hecataeus (Contra Apionem, i. 22 [§§ 201 ff.)). For the various 
forms of divination and sorcery mentioned in the O.T. see the 
classical study of the subject by W. R. Smith in the Cambridge 
Journal of Philology, xiii. 273 ff., xiv. 113 ff., Driver's Deuteronomy, 
pp. 223-226, and the relevant. articles in the recent Bible 
Dictionaries. i 

27 f. Prohibition of certain mourning customs, adopted by the 
Hebrews from the Canaanites. In their origin associated with 
the worship of the dead, these rites were incompatible with 
loyalty to, Yahweh and his worship. The hair is not to be shaved 
from the temples (see Jer. ix. 26, R.V.) nor the beard to be clipped 
at the corners. For the widespread custom of hair-offerings see 
W._R, Smith, Rel. Sem.?, 325 ff. The hair, from its congent 
erat was regarded as the Seat of life.» 

In Jer, xvi. 6, xlviii. 37, as here, the custom of cutting or 
gashing the body and hands to the effusion of blood is associated 
aS a Mourning rite with shaving the head and clipping the beard. 
For the underlying motive of the former custom and the reasons 
for its prohibition see ‘Cuttings in the Flesh’ in Hastings’s DB. 
(1909), 172. 

23. nor print any marks upon you: a prohibition of the custom 
of tattooing some part of the body with a mark to denote the deity 
whose worship the bearer specially affected. Cf. S. Paul’s 
figurative use of the term, Gal. vi. 17, R.V. 

29. to make her a harlot: better ‘a votary,’ with allusion 
to the shocking custom of dedicating a daughter as a temple 
prostitute. For the O.T. references to these votaries, male and 
female, of the Canaanite nature-religion, see Driver's notes on 
Deut. xxiii. 17 f.,.in Intern. Crit. Comm. 


LEVITICUS 19. 31-36. H 135 


Turn ye not unto them that have familiar spirits, nor 31 
unto the wizards ; seek them not out, to be defiled by 
them: I am the Lorp your God. Thou shalt rise up 32 
before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old 
man, and thou shalt fear thy God: I am the Lorp. 
And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall 33 
not-do him wrong. The stranger that sojourneth with 34 
you shall be unto you as the homeborn among you, and 
thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in 
the land of Egypt: Iam the Lorp your God. Ye shall 35 
do no unrighteousness in judgement, in meteyard, i 
weight, or in measure. Just balances, just weights, a just 36 
ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LorpD 
your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt. 





31. them that have familiar spirits: a single word in the 
original, the precise meaning of which is uncertain; the same 
remark applies to the word rendered ‘wizard,’ which is always 
associated with the former. ‘Familiar’ in this connexion denotes 
‘attendant’ (from Latin famiulus), the necromancer—for such is 
the most probable modern equivalent, cf. 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, ‘a woman 
that is a necromancer’—being supposed to have a daimon or 
spirit in attendance upon him or even residing within him (cf. xx, 
27 below). See further the references in the note on verse 26, 
to which add Hoonacker’s study of the terms employed in this 
verse in the Expository Times, ix. 157 ff. 

34. Extension of the command of 18! to the gév (see above). 
The ground for this humane treatment of the alien settler is as old 
as the Book of the Covenant (Exod. xxii. 21, xxiii. 9). 

35 £..demand honesty in commercial transactions (cf. Deut. xxv. 
13-16). A ‘meteyard’ is a measuring rod, the modern foot-rule, 
but the original scarcely admits of this concrete rendering; ‘nor 
in regard to measures of length, weight, or capacity’ is the sense 
intended. 

36. a just ephah, and a just hin: the former, rather larger than 
our bushel, was the standard for dry measures, "and had the same 
cubic content as the ‘bath’ for liquids. The ‘hin’ was a sixth of 
the ‘bath,’ equal therefore to 1{-14 gallons (see the writer’s 
‘Weights and Measures’ in Hastings’s D3, iv, 910-913). The 
‘hin’? is mentioned almost exclusively in connexion with the 
offerings of oil and wine (see Num. xxviii); 


ae eee: %y 


136 LEVITICUS 19. 37—20.5. H 
37 And ye shall observe all my statutes, and all mp judge- 
ments, and do them: I am the Lorp. Bil) 1tris 


20: And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Moreover, 
thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be 
of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn 
in Israel, that giveth of his seed unto Molech; he shall 
surely be put to death : the people of the land shall stone 

3 him with stones. I also will set my face against that 
man, and will cut him off from among his people ; be- 
cause he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile 

4 my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. And if the 
people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from that 
man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and put 

5 him not to death: then I will set my face against that 


Chap. xx deals in the main with the penalties attaching to the 
offences against sexual morality enumerated in chap, xviii. The 
mutual relation of these two chapters has been the subject of 
much discussion, The older view that ch. xx was originally 
composed for the express purpose of enacting penalties for the 
offences of ch. xviii is untenable. For (1) if xx be from the same 
hand or harids as xviii, no valid reason can be adduced for 
separating the crimes from their punishments in this way; (2) the 
contents of xx do not completely correspond to those of xviii—at 
least four offences mentioned in the latter chapter, viz. xviii. 7, 10, 
17°, 18, are not dealt with in xx; (3) the order of the topics differs 
considerably in the two chapters ; and (4) the various offences are 
frequently expressed in different phraseology. The evidence for 
these statements must be sought in the larger commentaries. ‘In 
short, the compiler of the Holiness Code (R®) must have had access 
to a collection of ancient ?6roth, closely allied to, but independent 
of, those forming the basis of ‘ths, xviii-xix. This collection he 
has taken up and fitted, as his manner is, with a short introduc- 
tion (xx. 7f.) anda longer hortatory conclusion (a2-26), prefacing 
the whole by a special section on Molech worship’ (2-5). 


1-5. The penalties of Molech worship. The section js,imet 
homogeneous. The original law prescribes death by stoning 
(verse 2) ; an alternative punishment by divine judgement has been 
introduced later (3), which has led to the harmonizing addition 
now contained in verses 4,5. The name Molech is a purely. 


LEVITICUS 20. 6-10. H 137 


man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all 
that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with 
Molech, from among their people. And the soul that 6 
turneth unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto 
the wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set 
my face against that soul, and will cut him off from 
among his people. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be 7 
ye holy: for I am the Lorp your God. And ye shall 8 
keep my statutes, and do them: I am the Lorp which 
sanctify you. For every one that curseth his father or 9 
his mother shall surely be put to death: he hath cursed 
his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him. 
And the’ man that committeth adultery with another 1° 
man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his 
neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and’ the adulteress shall 





artificial combination of the consonants of the Hebrew word for 
king (Melek) with the vowels of the word for shame (bdsheth ; 
ef. Ish-baal and Ish-bosheth, with note on the latter, in Cent. Bible, 
2 Sam.ii.8). Indeed, the name is not a proper name at all, but 
an appellative, with the article, meaning ‘the King.’ What deity 
was denoted by this title is still uncertain ; El-Kronos-Saturn of 
the Phoenicians, the Babylonian Nergal, and others have been 
suggested. The principal seat of his worship was the Valley of 
Hinnom, where children, especially firstborn males, were burned 
in his honour. From Jer. vii. 31 and Micah vi. 7 it would appear 
that in popular imagination this King-deity was identified with 
Yahweh, to whom parents sacrificed ‘the fruit of’ their ‘body’ 
with the horrid rites of ‘Molech.’ See Moore’s article ‘Molech’ 
in EBi., and the exhaustive study by Baudissin in Hauck’s Protest. 
Real-Encyclopddie®, vol. xiii., art. Moloch. 
a whoring ...whoredom: see on xvii. 7. 

6 is generally regarded as a substitution for the original law 
now appended in verse 27. Note the same divergence as to the 
punishment as in verses 2 f. See further the note on xix. 31. 

” £. contain the unmistakeable signature of R®. 

9. his blood shall be upon him: i.e. on the criminal alone; 
the law of blood-revenge shall not be operative against those who 
have put him to death. The expression is confined to this chapter 
(cf. 11-13, 16, 27) and to Ezek. xviii. 13 ; contrast Num. xxxv. 27. 

10. A copyist has inadvertently repeated a few words in this 


‘4 


138 LEVITICUS 20. 11-418. 


11 surely be put to death, And the man that lieth with his_ 
father’s wife hath uncovered. his father’s nakedness : both 
of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall 

12 be upon them. And if a man lie ai his daughter in. 
law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they 
have wrought confusion ; their blood shall be upon them. 

13 And if a man lie with ba nsiitril as with womankind, both 
of them have committed, abomination ; they shall surely ‘ 

14 be put to death; their blood shall be upon them, And. 
ifa man take a wife and her mother, it is @ wickedness : 
they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they ; that 

15 there be no wickedness among you. And if a man lie, 
with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and. ye 

16 shall: ‘slay the beast. And if a, woman.approach unto. 
any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the 
woman, and the beast : they shall surely be put to death ; 

17 their blood shall be upon them. And if a man shall 

take his sister, his’ father’s daughter, or: his mother’s, 

daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his ndked- 

ness; it is a shameful thing ; and they shall be cut off in 
the sight of the children of their people: he hath un- 
covered his sister’s nakedness ; he shall bear his, iniquity. 

And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, 


an 


I 


: * Or, enornuty y Fisraeet 
verse, which should run thus: ‘and the man that committeth 
adultery with his neighbour’s wife,’ &c. 

14. The usual mode of executing the death penalt among the 
Hebrews was by stoning ; for the aggravated case hip aneg here 
dealt with and for the case mentioned in xxi. 9, and for these 
alone, is death by burning prescribed. It is uncertain, however, 
whether the offender was burned alive, as seems to be contem- 
plated in the case of Tamar (Gen. xxxviii. 24), or was first done to 
death by stoning and then burned, as in Joshua vii. 15, 25. 

18. With the death penalty here prescribed compare fhe mild 
treatment of the offence in xv, 24, 


LEVITICUS 20. 19-26. H 139 


and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath made naked 
her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her 
blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among 
their people. And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness 
of thy mother’s sister, nor of thy father’s sister: for he 
hath made naked his near kin: they shall bear their 
iniquity. And if a man shall lie with his uncle’s wife, he 
hath uncovered his uncle’s nakedness: they shall bear 
their sin ; they shall die childless. And if a man. shall 
take his brother’s wife, it is impurity: he hath uncovered 
his brother’s nakedness ; they shall be childless. 

Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my 
judgements, and do them: that the land, whither I bring 
you to dwell therein, vomit you not out. And ye shall 
not walk in the customs of the nation, which I cast out 
before you: for they did all these things, ‘and therefore 
Tabhorred them. But I have said unto you, Ye shall 
inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess 
it, a land flowing with milk and honey: I am the Lorp 
your God, which have separated you from the peoples. 
Ye shall therefore separate between the clean beast and 
the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the 
clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable 
by beast, or by fowl, or by any thing wherewith the 
ground *teemeth, which I have separated from you as 
unclean. And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the 

® Heb. creepeth. 

22-26. A concluding exhortation to the observance of the divine 
“statutes and judgements’ from the hand of the compiler (cf. the 
similar exhortation, xvili. 24 ff.). The closing words of verse 25 
show that in 24-26 we have the original conclusion of a legislative 
section dealing with clean and unclean beasts and birds similar to 
‘chap. xi. Many scholars, indeed, hold that the latter chapter 


originally formed part of the Holiness Code. 
- 26. Sums up the whole end and aim of the priestly legislation. 


22 


& 


3 


24 


~ 


25 


26 


140 LEVITICUS 20. 2721.1 # 


Lorp am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, 
that ye should be mine. 1395 
27 A man also or a woman that hath a familiar spirit, 
or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they 
shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon 
them. . i 


21 And the Lorp said unto Moses, Speak unto the 





The people whom a holy God has chosen for His own must, like 

Him, be holy. The priestly conception of holiness differs from 

the prophetic in the emphasis which it lays on ceremonial purity, 

not in opposition, but in addition, to moral purity. — A. 
27. See on verse 6 and on xix. 31. 


(c) xxi-xxii. Laws relating to priesthood and sacrifice. i 

These two chapters together constitute a distinct section of the 
Holiness Code. Five sub-sections are easily distinguished, the 
contents of which may be thus summarized: (1) the priests, and 
especially the High Priest, must avoid ceremonial defilement 
(xxi. 1-15) ; (2) specification of bodily defects that disqualify for 
the office of priest (16-24); (3) restrictions with regard to partici- 
pation in ‘the holy things’ (xxii. 1-16) ; (4) the sacrificial victims 
must be free from physical blemish (17+25); (5) three supple- 
mentary sacrificial toroth (26-30), with a concluding exhortation 
31-33). ; as 
: From the critical point of view this section has had a similar 
history to those we have already studied. ‘Old ‘076th con- 
cerning the priesthood have been glossed, revised, and supple- 
mented by successive editors. Some of the glosses were p 
made upon the /ordth themselves before they were incorporated 
in H; many additions were made by R®, or by later editors in 
imitation of him; others, finally, by R® and’scribes of that school” 
(Moore, £8. iii. col. 2785, where an attempt is made to dis- 
tinguish the earlier from the later elements). The hand of the - 
editor (R®) who incorporated H with the main body of the priestly — 
legislation is seen more particularly in the superscriptions of the — 
two chapters (e.g. ‘the sons of Aaron,’ xxi. 1; cf. 24, xxii. 2, 18). 
Note also the discrepancy which has resulted in ch. xxi, in the 
superscription to which the priests are addressed, while in the 
body of the laws they are referred to in the third person, the laws 
being addressed to the people (see verse 8). 


1-9. Precautions against ceremonial defilement to be observed 
by the rank and file of the priesthood, particularly in connexion 


LEVITICUS 21. 2-». H 141 


priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them, There 
shall none defile himself for the dead among his people ; 
except for his kin, that is near unto him, for his mother, 2 
and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, 
and for his brother; and for his sister a virgin, that is 3 
near unto him, which hath had no husband, for her may 
he defile himself. He shall not defile himself, ® derng 4 
a chief man among his people, to profane himself. They 5 
shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall 
they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any 
cuttings in their flesh. They shall be holy unto their 6 
God, and not profane the name of their God: for the 
offerings of the Lorp made by fire, the bread of their 
God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy. They 7 
shall not take a woman that is a harlot, or ? profane; 
2-Or, asa husband The Sept.has, on a sudden. Or, polluted 


with mourning ceremonies for the dead. For the defilement 
caused by contact with a dead body, see esp. Num. xix. The 
laws relating to this form of uncleanness applied a fortiori to the 
priesthood, engaged in the holy ministry of the altar of Yahweh. 

8. for his sister a virgin: the point here is that a woman 
after marriage was no longer a member of her father’s family, but 
belonged to that of her husband. A priest, therefore, might not 
‘defile himself’ for a married sister. With the contents of 2 f. 
compare Ezek. xliv. 25-27, where, as here, no mention is made of 
a priest’s wife ; the exceptions include only those allied to him by 
blood. See further Cook, Moses and Hammurabi, 94 f. 

4. a chief man among his people: the original is here corrupt, 
and no satisfactory emendation has yet been proposed, 

5. See on xix. 27 f. 

6. the bread of their God: better, ‘the food of their God.’ 
The description of the sacrifices as the food of Yahweh, which is 
characteristic of this section (xxi. 8, 17, 21, xxii. 25), is a survival 
‘in the ancient technical language of the priestly ritual’ of the 
primitive conception that the deity worshipped actually partook of 
the sacrificial flesh and blood. Cf. Judges ix. 13 and the similar 
‘antique conception in Lev. i. 9 (p. qo). The Babylonians also 
‘spoke of sacrifice as the food of their gods (KAT.$ 594 f.). 

7. or profane; i.e, dishonoured (Driver); in other words 


8 


142 LEVITICUS 21. 8-12. H 


neither shall they take a woman put away from her hus- 
band: for he is holy unto his God. Thou shalt sanctify 
him therefore: for he offereth the bread of thy God: he 
shall be holy unto thee: for I the Lorp, which sanctify 


9 you, am holy. And the daughter of any priest, if she 


Io 


TI 


12 


profane herself by playing the harlot, she abr 2%. 
father: she shall be burnt with fire. 

And he that is the high priest among his bebiatesd, 
upon whose head the anointing oil is poured, and * that 
is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not let the 
hair of his head go loose, nor rend his clothes ; neither 
shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for 
his father, or for his mother; neither shall he go out of 
the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his’ God ; 

* Heb. whose hand is filled. 





a priest must marry a virgo intacta, cf. verse 14, ‘a virgin of his 
own people.’ 
9. For the punishment here prescribed, see on xx. 14. 


to-15. Increased restrictions in the case of the High Priest. 

10. he that is the high priest among his brethren: the ex- 
pression is unique in the original, which is more literally rendered 
‘the priest that is chief among his brethren.’ The High Priest 
in this early torah is still primus inter pares. In P, it is scarcely 


- necessaty to add, his position has advanced to that of a father 


among his sons. The reference to the anointing oil and the 
sacred garments is probably an addition to the original éorah, 
based on the contents of ch. viii. With the tokens of mourning, 
forbidden at the close of this verse, cf. x. 6, where the prohibitions 
apply to the whole priesthood. 

12. The High Priest is forbidden to leave the sanctuary or 
sacred enclosure (/stenos) on any pretext, lest he might un- — 
wittingly contract defilement and on his return defile the sanc- — 
tuary through the contagion of his uncleanness. This /67ah 
clearly implies that the High Priest lived within the sacred — 
precincts, as did Eli at the sanctuary of Shiloh (x Sam. iii. 2 ff.). 
It may therefore be assigned to the period before the Deutero- — 
nomic reform, when each of the more important sanctuaries had — 
its body of priests under a single head, as we know was the case — 
at Nob (1 Sam, xxii, rf-18), and at Beth-el (Amos vii, To ff.). 


 LEVEFIGUSS21. 138161 7 143 


for the * crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon 
him: I am the Lorp. And he shall take a wife in her 
virginity. A widow, or one divorced, or a profane 
woman, an harlot, these shall he not take: but a virgin 
of his own people shall he take to wife. And he shall 
not profane his seed among his people: for I am the 
Lorp which sanctify him. 

And the Lorn spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed throughout 
their generations that hath a blemish, let him not approach 
to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he 
be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind 
man, or a lame, or he that hath a ¢ flat nose, or any thing 
superfluous, or a man that is brokenfooted, or broken- 


2 Or, consecration > Or, polluted ¢ Or, shit 


the crown: render, with margin, ‘the consecration’ (see 
Vili. 12). 
~ 14. a virgin of his own people: lit. ‘of his kinsfolk.’ It is 
uncertain whether the legislator intends to limit the choice to 
members of the priestly families (so LXX and Philo), or merely 
to virgins of pure Hebrew blood. 


16-24. Enumeration of the various bodily defects that disqualify 
members of the priestly caste. for the priestly office. A close 
parallel to this section of H is found in a Babylonian tablet of an 
early king of Sippar. There it is laid down, with reference to the 
section of the priesthood that occupied themselves with divination, 
that ‘the son of a diviner who is not of pure descent, or is not 
perfect in stature and in the members of his body, who has 
Cataract in the eyes, broken teeth, or a mutilated finger, who 
suffers from disease of the stones or of the skin,’ is not permitted 
to exercise the office of a soothsayer (see KAT.* 534; Zimmern, 
Beitrdge sur Kenntniss d. Babylon. Religion, 116 ff.) ; Haupt, 
Journ. of Bib. Lit, xix. 57, 64 f.). 

18. or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous: 
a better rendering is: ‘or that is mutilated (in the face), or is 
too long in a limb.’ The word rendered ‘ mutilated’ seems to 
denote disfigurement of the face by the common oriental practice 
of slitting the ears, nose, or lips (cf. R.V. margin), 


13 
Las 


15 


16 
17 


18 


144 LEVITICUS 21. 20.—22.7r H 


20 handed, or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish 
in his eye, or is scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones 

21 broken; no man of the seed of Aaron the priest, that 
hath a blemish, shall come nigh to offer the offerings of 
the Lorp made by fire: he hath a blemish ; he shall not 

22 come nigh to offer the bread of his God. He shall eat 
the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the 

23 holy. Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come 
nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish ; that he 
profane not my sanctuaries: for I am the Lorp which 

24 sanctify them. So Moses spake unto Aaron, and to his 
sons, and unto all the children of Israel. 

22 And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 





20. or a dwarf: a doubtful rendering ; the word means, ‘thin, 
shrunken,’ and is used to describe the ‘leanfleshed’ kine of 
Gen. xli. 3f. Hence Kautzsch renders ‘ (abnormally) emaciated,’ 
Baentsch ‘consumptive.’ Note the correspondence of the defects 
that follow with those specified in the Babylonian list above 
quoted. 

22. He shall eat the bread of his God: although debarred by 
his physical defect from officiating at the altar, he is still a priest 
by birth, and as such is entitled to his share of the sacrificial flesh 
and other priestly dues. 

both of the most holy, and of the holy: for this distinction 
see the note on ii. 3. As it is elsewhere unknown in H (see e.g. 
xxii. 3 f.), we have here probably the hand of R?, who has also 
added the reference to the veil in the following verse. 

23. my sanctuaries: the plural is usually explained as in- 
cluding the temple and the altar, but it seems better to take the 
word in its natural sense as denoting the local sanctuaries of 
Yahweh, which may be assumed to have been still in use when 
this forah was framed (cf. note on verse 12). It will then have 
been inadvertently left uncorrected when the forah was taken 
over by the compiler of H, who certainly in this section and 
elsewhere admits the legitimacy of but one sanctuary, the 
temple. : 


xxii. 1-16 deal with the restrictions imposed upon the priests 
in their enjoyment of their share of the offerings. Only priests 
and the members of their family are to partake of ‘the holy 
things,’ and then only when in a condition of ceremonial purity. 


2 
oa 
f: aron and to his sons, that they separate themselves 
4 from the holy things of the children of Israel, which they 
hallow unto me, and that they profane not my holy 
name: I am the Lorp. Say unto them, Whosoever he 3 
be of all your seed throughout your generations, that 
approacheth unto the holy things, which the children of 
Tsrael hallow unto the Lorp, having his uncleanness upon 
him, that soul shall be cut off from before me: I am the 
Lorp. What man soever of the seed of Aaron isa leper, 4 
or hath an issue ; he shall not eat of the holy things, until 
he be clean. And whoso toucheth any thing that is 
unclean by the dead, or a man whose seed goeth from 
him ; or whosoever toucheth any creeping thing, whereby 5 
he may be made unclean, or a man of whom he may take 
uncleanness, whatsoever uncleanness he hath ; the soul 6 
which toucheth any such shall be unclean until the even, 
and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he bathe his 
* Or, any one 


LEVITICUS 22. 3-6.° H 145 





2. that they separate themselves from. The root idea of the 
original is abstinence from something, as in Zech. vii. 3, where 
“separating myself’ means ‘abstaining from food,’ ‘ fasting ;’ 
in the present context the thought of the writer may, in our 
idiom, be expressed by the converse: ‘that they partake reve- 
rently and with self-restraint of the holy things.’ 

the holy things of the children of Israel: a comprehensive 
expression for offerings of all sorts presented at the altar; in 
addition to the priest’s share of the cereal offerings and of the 
flesh of the peace-offerings which the legislator may have here 
chiefly in view—H is silent as to sin- and guilt-offerings—the 
term ‘ holy things’ includes the offerings of the firstlings of cattle, 
the firstfruits of field and vineyard, the various tithes, &c. 
P’s distinction between ‘ holy’ and ‘ most holy’ things, for which 
see the note on ii. 3 (cf. on xxi. 22), is unknown to H. 

3. that approacheth unto, kc. The context shows that these 
words refer to partaking of the sacred dues, not to offering at 
the altar. 

4-7. See chs. xi-xv for the various forms of ceremonial 
uncleanness here specified, and the means prescribed for the 
‘removal of the same. 


L 


146 LEVITICUS 22. 7-13. 


7 flesh in water. And when the sun is down, he shall be 
clean; and afterward he shall eat of the holy things, 

8 because it is his bread. That which dieth of itself, or is 
torn of beasts, he shall not eat to defile himself there- 

g with: I am the Lorp. They:shall therefore keep my 
charge, lest they bear sin for it, and die therein, if they 
1o profane it: I am the Lorn which sanctify them. There 
shall no stranger eat of the holy thing: a sojourner of 
the priest’s, or an hired servant, shall not eat of the holy 

11 thing. But if a priest buy any soul, the purchase of his 
_ money, he shall eat of it; and such as are born in his 
12 house, they shall eat of his bread. And if a priest's 
' daughter be married unto a stranger, she shall not eat of 
13 the heave offering of the holy things. But if a priest’s 
daughter be a widow, or divorced, and have no child, and 

is returned unto her father’s house, as in her youth, she 
shall eat of her father’s bread: but there shall no stranger 





8. See note on xvii. 15. 

10. no stranger. Here and in verses 12 f, ‘stranger’ (2@?), 
denotes one who is not a member of a priestly family, i in other 
words a layman (cf. Deut. xxv. 5, where ‘stranger’ is a man 
outside the family of the deceased husband). The sar must be 
carefully distinguished both from the ‘stranger’ of verse 18, who is 
the gér, or resident alien with certain civil and religious rights 
(see on xvii. 8), and from a sojourner of the priest’s (Heb. 
tésha@bh), apparently an alien only temporarily settled in a Hebrew 
family, and in a position of greater dependence on his patron than 
the gér. 

11. A Hebrew slave, on the contrary, whether purchased or 
born in his house (cf. Gen. xiv. 14, xv. 3), was regarded as a 
member of the priest’s family, sharing in its worship and therefore 
allowed, like the other members of the family, to partake of the 
holy things. 

12f. A daughter of a priest, married inte a layman’s hike, 
belongs to the latter, and is excluded from sharing in the priest’s 
dues. (cf. the similar case, xxi. 3); if she becomes a widow with 
children, she and they still belong to the husband’s and father’s 
kin, but if she is childless, she may resume her position in her 
father’ s family with its privileges. 





LEVITICUS 22. 14-21. H 147 


eat thereof. And if a man eat of the holy thing un- 
_ wittingly, then he shall put the fifth part thereof unto it, 
and shall give unto the priest the holy thing. And they 
shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, 
which they offer unto the Lorp; and so cause them to 
bear the iniquity that bringeth guilt, when they eat their 
holy things : for I am the Lorp which sanctify them. 
And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of 
Israel, and say unto them, Whosoever he be of the house 
of Israel, or of the strangers in Israel, that offereth his 
oblation, whether it be any of their vows, or any of their 
freewill offerings, which they offer unto the Lorp for a 
burnt offering ; that ye may be accepted, ye shall offer 
a male without blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, or 
of the goats. But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall 
ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you. And 
whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the 


14. The penalty here prescribed, restoration of the ‘ holy thing’ 
with a fine equal to one-fifth of its value, is so far identical with 
that of the later law, v. 14-16 (which see); here, however, no 
mention is made of an accompanying guilt-offering. As compared 
With P, more especially in its later strata, H represents an earlier 
stage in the history of sacrifice. 

15. The subject is the priests; the profanation is caused by the 
admission of unqualified persons to partake of the sacred dues. 


17-25. Animals destined for the altar must, as a rule, be free 
from physical blemish (for the single exception see below). The 
chief points of interest are: (1) only two classes of animal sacri- 
fices are contemplated, the burnt- or whole-offering, and the 
peace-offering or sacrifice of requital (or recompense). As has 
been already pointed out, H is silent as to the sin- and guilt- 
offerings, (2) Both the former classes comprise two varieties, 
the votive-ofiering (E.V. ‘ vow’) and the freewill-offering, for which 
see note on vii. 16. This is the only passage where burnt- 
offerings are so distinguished, although Ezekiel (xlvi. 12) speaks 
of a freewill burnt-offering—the votive and freewill-offerings 
belonging more naturally to the category of the recompense- 


L2 


by 


17 


ia ° eee 
oe lal a 3 : 


4 a 


148 LEVITICUS 22, 5¢ea7s ene 


Lorp to *accomplish a vow, or for a freewill offering, of 
the herd or of the flock, it shall be perfect to be accepted ; 
_22 there shall be no blemish therein. Blind, or broken, or 
maimed, or having »a wen, or scurvy, or seabbed, ye 
shall not offer these unto the Lorp, nor make an offering 
23 by fire of them upon the altar unto the Lorp. Either 
a bullock or a lamb that hath any thing superfluous or 
lacking in his parts, that mayest thou offer for a freewill 
24 Offering ; but for a vow it shall not be accepted. ‘That 
which hath its stones bruised, or crushed, or broken, or 
cut, ye shall not offer unto the Lorp; neither shall ye 
25¢°do ¢hus in your land. Neither from the hand of a — 
foreigner shall ye offer the bread of your God of any of 
these; because their corruption is in them, there is a 
blemish in them: they shall not be accepted for you. 
And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, When a 
bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought forth, then it 
shall be seven days under the dam ; and from the eighth 
2 Or, make a specialeow Or, sores © Or, sacrifice them 


26 


offering. (3) The thank-offering proper does not appear here 
as a third variety of the latter, as it does in vii. rr f. (P), but 
appears later (verses 29 f.) as an independent sacrifice (cf, note 
on xix. 5-8). (4) The admission of imperfect victims in the case of 
' the freewill-offering (verse 23). 

22. having a wen: render as margin, ‘having (running) 
sores.’ 

23. that hath any thing superfluous or lacking, &c. : rather 
‘that hath any of its members too long or too short,’ cf. xxi. 18. 

24. Only entire males are admissible. The last clause of the — 
verse has been interpreted either as a general prohibition of 
castration by any of the four methods specified (so text of R.V.), — 
or as a special prohibition against offering castrated animals in — 
sacrifice (so R.V. margin and text of A.V.). The tenor of the — 
section as a whole favours the latter interpretation. 

24. Such blemished victims are inadmissible even when pur- 
chased from a non-Israelite. 





26-31. Three supplementary laws relating to sacrifice and 
offering. 


_ 
= 


Z 


LEVITICUS 22. 2s—23. 2, HP 149 


E 


day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for the oblation 


_ of an offering made by fire unto the Lorp. And whether 28 


it be cow or ewe, ye shall not kill it and her young both 

in one day. And when ye sacrifice a sacrifice of thanks- 29 
giving unto the Lor», ye shall sacrifice it that ye may be 
accepted. On the same day it shall be eaten; ye shall 30 
leave none of it until the morning: I am the Lorp. 
Therefore shall ye keep my commandments, and do 31 
them: I am the Lorp. And ye shall not profane my 32 
holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children 
of Israel: I am the Lorp which hallow you, that brought 33 
you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the 
Lorp. 


[P] And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak 23 2 





27 repeats the older /orah, Exod. xxii. 30 ; the latter, however, 
in its present context has a special reference to the sacrifice of the 
firstlings of the flock and of the herd. 

29 f. deal with the ‘sacrifice of thanksgiving’ as an independent 
offering ; see notes on vii. 15 and xix. 5-8. 

31-33. The concluding exhortation, addressed to the people, 
from the compiler of H; cf. the similar passages xviii. 26-30, xix. 
37, XX. 20-26, from the same hand. 


(d) xxiii-xxv. The cycle of sacred seasons and other matters. 

The most characteristic part of the Holiness Code is now at an 
end, apart from the concluding exhortation in ch. xxvi. In the 
three chapters here taken, for convenience of treatment, as forming 
a separate section, H has been combined with legislative material 
from P, and glossed by later priestly hands to an extent greatly 
beyond anything in the preceding chapters. 

xxiii. A calendar of the festivals of the ecclesiastical year. 
These comprise the Sabbath (verses 1-3), the feast of Passover 
(4 f.), the feast of Unleavened Cakes (sazsdth), including the 
ceremony of the wave-sheaf 6-14), the feast of Weeks (15-22), 
New Year’s Day (23-25), the Day of Atonement (26-32), the feast 
of Booths (33-36, 39-43), with an original colophon now divided 
into two parts (37f., 44). Cf. throughout Num. xxviii f. 

The calendar in its present form has been compiled from H and 
P with editorial additions by R®, the editor who combined H with 


ww 


ea ™ 


450 ‘LEVITICUS 23.3 2 





unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, The ® set 

feasts of the Lorp, which ye shall proclaim to be holy — 

convocations, even these are my set feasts. Six days — 

shall work be done: but on the seventh day is a ee | 
2108; appointed seasons 





the main body of P, and by other hands (P%) in the spirit of P. 
The standpoint and phraseology of the latter are easily detected 
in verses 1-8, 23-38, while the characteristics of H are not less — 
evident in verses 9-22, 39-43. Closer inspection, however, 
shows that these groups are not entirely homogeneous. Thus 
the phrase ‘beside the sabbaths of Yahweh’ in the colophon of P 
(verse 38), shows that the law on the observance of the sabbath 
was not originally contained in the compilers extract from this 
source, a conclusion confirmed by the fresh heading in verse 4. 
The legislation of H has also been expanded by priestly additions. 
The literary analysis may be represented as follows : 
1o"-12 14*15-17 18-20 (in part) 22 39-43. 

134 4-8 21 23-38 44. 

RP? and P* 1-3 g-1o* 13 14” 18-19 (parts) 39 (part). 

There is a significant difference in the attitude of H and P 
respectively to the three great pilgrimage feasts of Unleavened 
Cakes, Weeks, and Booths. In the former source these still retain 
their original intimate connexion with agriculture, more precisely 
with the grain and fruit harvests, whereas in P they are entirely 
divorced therefrom and have become fixed ecclesiastical festivals. 
Very full lists of recent studies of the Hebrew feasts are given by - 
W. R. Harper, The Priestly Element in the O. T., 1905, pp. 104-6, 
283 f.;and a convenient classification of the data of the Hexateuch 
in C-H. i. 243-7. 

~3. The first place in the calendar, as now arranged, is occu- 
pied by the Sabbath. The secondary character of the section has 
been already explained. 

2. set feasts: the marginal rendering, ‘ appointed (i.e. fixed) 
seasons,’ is preferable ; cf. the non-technical use of the word at 
the close of verse 4. 

holy convocations: meetings ‘convoked’ or wales for 
public worship at the sanctuary; ‘holy religious meetings” is 
Driver's rendering. That the whole community should be ex- _ 
pected to assemble at the Temple every Sabbath is, as Kautzsch 
remarks, ‘exceedingly strange.’ The explanation may be that 
the late editor, to whom we owe this section, had the post-exilic 
institution of the synagogue in view. 

3. a sabhath of solemn rest: for this emphatic expression sec 
on xvi. 31. In H the observation of the Sabbath is enjoined in 


LEVITICUS 23. 4-6. P .- r51 


of solemn rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no 


A 


, 


manner of work: it is a sabbath unto the Lorp in all 
your dwellings. 

These are the set feasts of the Lorp, even holy con- 4 
vocations, which ye shall proclaim in their appointed 
season. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the 5 
month *at even, is the Lorp’s passover. And on the 6 

® Heb. between the two evenings. 


Rix. 2, 30, xxvi. 2. No agreement has yet been reached by 
scholars as regards either the etymological significance of the 
word shabbath, or the origin and early history of the institution. 
To the copious literature on the Sabbath in Harper, of. at. 114-7, 
284—from which Driver’s article in Hastings’s DB. iv. may be 
singled out—there fall to be added the more recent German mono- 
graphs by Meinhold and Hehn, Benzinger’s Heb. Archdologie? 
[1908], 380 f., and M°Neile, The Book of Exodus, Tar ff. 

4f. The Passover feast from P, who has already dealt with it 
in detail, Exod. xii. 1-13, 43-50; see Bennett, Cent. Bible, i loc., 
also Robinson on Deut. xvi. 1-7 in the same series. This feast 
was regarded by Hebrew writers as deriving its name (Jesa#), as 
does ts English equivalent, from the circumstance that Yahweh 
‘passed over,’ in the sense of ‘spared’ (fdsaz), the Hebrews on 
the night of its institution (see Exod. xii. 27), but this etymology 
is doubtful in the extreme. Unfortunately the remark made above 
regarding the name and the institution of the Sabbath applies 
equally to Passover. It is generally agreed, however, that the 
Passover is the descendant of a very ancient spring festival 
observed by the nomadic ancestors of the Hebrews, and standing 
in some connexion with the protection of their tents and flocks. 
This at least is certain, that Passover was originally entirely dis- 
tinct from the feast of Unleavened Cakes with which it afterwards 
became joined. Of the more recent discussions may be men- 
tioned Benzinger’s article, ‘Passover and Unleavened Bread,’ in 
EB. (cf. this scholar’s later views in his Heb. Archdologie? {1908} 
302 ff.), and the excursus in M‘Neile’s Exodus, 62-68). 

5. the first month: of the ecclesiastical year, as in P through- 
out (see Exod. xii. 2), the old name of which was Abib (Deut. 
xvi, 1), corresponding roughly to April. The Hebrew year 
originally began for all purposes in autumn with P’s seventh 
month (see on verses 23 ff.), and the Jewish civil year still con- 
tinues to be soreckoned. In the post-exilic period the Babylonian 
names for the months were adopted, and Abib became Nisan 
(Neh. ii. 1). 


I 


152 LEVITICUS 23. 711. PH 


fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of un- 
leavened bread unto the Lorn: seven days ye shall eat 


7 unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy 
‘ 8 convocation: ye shall do no ®servile work. But ye shall 


~ 


offer an offering made by fire unto the LorD seven days: 
in the seventh day is an holy convocation; ye shall do 
no servile work. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
the children of Israel, and say unto them, [H] When ye 
be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall 
reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring the sheaf 
of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: and he 
shall wave the sheaf before the Lorn, to be accepted for 

* Heb. work of labour. 





6-8. The feast of Unleavened Cakes—such is the more exact 
rendering of the Heb. mazszoth—lasting seven days, the first and 
last of which were days of ‘holy convocation,’ Mazzoth is also 
dealt with in later strata of P, viz., Exod. xii. 14-20 and Num. 
xxviii. 17-25, where the special daily sacrifices are prescribed (cf. 
verse 13 below). 

7. ye shall do no servile work: lit. ‘ work of tillage,’ work in 
the fields. 


9-14. The parallel ordinance from H now considerably expanded 
(see the analysis above). Here the distinguishing feature of the _ 
festival is an interesting ceremony, which shows that Mazzoth, 
like its complement, the feast of Weeks, was a harvest festival. 
At the beginning of the barley harvest—barley ripens two or three 
weeks before the wheat—the husbandman presented to God’s 
representative at the local sanctuary (see the next note) the first 
sheaf in token of his dependence upon, and gratitude to, the Lord 
of the harvest. In early times the date of the festival, which we 
have seen to have had originally no connexion with the Passover, 
will have varied with the date of the ripening of the crops in the 
different districts of Palestine. 

10. unto-the priest: in the old /évah, taken up by H, the 
reference was doubtless to the priest of the local sanctuary, as 
elsewhere in H (xvii. 5, xx. 10, &c.). 

11. he shall wave the sheaf. For the nature of the action here 
prescribed, see note on vii. 30, and cf, verses 17, 20 of this 
chapter, 


ae | 
man. 


LEVITICUS 23. 12-14. H 153 


you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall 
wave it. And in the day when ye wave the sheaf, ye 
shall offer a he-lamb without blemish of the first year for 
a burnt offering unto the Lorp. And the meal offering 
thereof shall be two tenth parts of az ephah of fine flour 
mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Lorp 
for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall 
be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. And ye shall eat 
neither bread, nor parched corn, nor fresh ears, until 
this selfsame day, until ye have brought the oblation of 
your God: it is a statute for ever throughout your 
generations in all your dwellings. 


on the morrow after the sabbath. The best authorities, 
Jewish and Christian alike, differ widely in their understanding 
of this expression (see the various sets of opinions in Dillmann, 
Exodus and Leviticus*, 641 ff.) There seems to be two clues to 
the probable interpretation: (1) the nature of the case requires 
that the ceremony of the wave-sheaf, by which the harvest was 
consecrated to man’s use, should take place on the first day of the 
harvest; (2) the mention of ‘the seventh sabbath’ in verse 16 
shows that the ‘sabbath’ of verses 11 and 15 must also be under- 
stood in its ordinary signification of the weekly day of rest, the 
seventh of the week. This being so, we must assume that at the 
- time when this /orah was first written down, it was customary to 
begin harvest operations on the first day of the week, a practice 
which has its analogies elsewhere, as Bertholet shows in his 
commentary. By this interpretation, furthermore, the date from 
which the count is made for fixing Pentecost in verses 15 f. agrees 
with that given in Deut. xvi.g: ‘from the time thou leginnesé to 
put the sickle to the standing corn, shalt thou begin to number 
seven weeks.’ 

12-14. Of these verses only 12 and 14° (to ‘fresh ears’) belong 
to the original legislation of H; the rest is a later addition in the 
spirit and phraseology of P (RP). H requires (1) that the pre- 
sentation of the wave-sheaf shall be accompanied by the sacrifice 
of a yearling he-lamb, and (2) that the new harvest shall not be 
partaken of in any form until ‘the sheaf of the firstfruits’ has been 
presented at the altar. 

two tenth parts of an ephah: lit. ‘two ‘tssavouis of fine flour,’ 
see note on v. 11, also on xix. 36 for the ephah and the hin. Cf, 
the more elaborate prescriptions in Num. xxviii. 19 ff. (P®). 


-_ 


2 


4 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


154 LEVITICUS 23. 15-20. 


And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after 
the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of 
the wave offering ; seven sabbaths shall there be com- 
plete: even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath 
shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new 
meal offering unto the Lorp. Ye shall bring out of your 
habitations two wave loaves of two tenth parts of an 
ephah: they shall be of fine flour, they shall be baken 
with leaven, for firstfruits unto the Lorp. And ye shall 
present with the bread seven lambs without blemish of 
the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: 
they shall be a burnt offering unto the Lorn, with their 
meal offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering 
made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lorp. And 
ye shall offer one he-goat for a sin offering, and two he- 
lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 
And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the 





15-21. The feast of Weeks (Exod. xxxiv. 22), also termed ‘ the 
feast of harvest’ (xxiii. 16). It was also originally a harvest 
festival to celebrate the close of the wheat harvest, and fell on the 


fiftieth day after the beginning of the feast of Mazzoth, hence the 


later name Pentecost, the Greek word for fiftieth. 

15. seven sabbaths shall there be complete: here and xxv. 8 
shabbath seems to signify ‘week ;’ render ‘seven full weeks shall 
there be.’ For the starting-point of the count see note on verse IT. 

16. anew meal offering: a cereal-offering of the produce of the 
new wheat harvest, cf. Exod. xxxiv. 22 where the feast is described 
as the feast ‘ of the firstfruits of wheat harvest.’ 

17. they shall be baken with leaven. This is not inconsistent 
with the prohibition of ii. rr, since the wave-loaves were not con- 
sumed upon the altar but became the perquisite of the priest 
(verse 20). 

18-20. The original provisions of H have again been greatly, 
and not quite correctly, expanded on the basis of Num. xxviii, 26 ff. 
The former probably contained only the following (ef. verse ra) : 
‘And ye shall present with the bread two he-lambs of the first year 
for a sacrifice of requital (E.V. peace-offerings),’ for God’s good 
gift of the harvest. Its commencement had been hallowed bya 
burnt-offering of a single lamb (verse 12), 


= 


: 
: 


| 


LEVITICUS 23. 21-2. HPHP 155 


firstfruits for a wave offering before the Lorn, with the 
two lambs: they shall be holy to the Lorp for the priest. 
[P| And ye shall make proclamation on the selfsame day ; 
there shall be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do 
no servile work ; it is a statute for ever in all your dwell- 
ings throughout your generations. 

[#1] And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou 

shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither 
shalt thou gather the gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt 
leave them for the poor, and for the stranger: I am the 
Lorp your God. 
_ [P] And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak 
unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, 
in the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest unto 
you, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy conyo- 
cation. Ye shall do no servile work: and ye shall offer 
an offering made by fire unto the Lorp. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Howbeit on 
the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atone- 
ment: it shall be an holy convocation unto you, and ye 


shall afflict your souls; and ye shall offer an offering 





22. = xix.gf. slightly modified (H). 

23-25. The first day of the seventh month (Tishri), counting 
from Nisan, is to be observed as a day of sabbatical rest (see note 
on xvi. 31) and public worship. It is to be ushered in, like the 
year of Jubilee (xxv. 9), with a blast of trumpets; hence the day 
is termed ‘the day of the trumpet-blast’ (Num. xxix. 1), and is 
sometimes described as the feast of Trumpets. In reality—though 
this is not stated here—the day in question is the New Year’s Day 
of the civil year (see above on verse 5). From Ezek. xl. t it 
would appear that at one time New Year’s Day fell on the tenth 
of Tishri, but was afterwards moved to the first of that month (ef, 
note on xxv. 9). 


26-32. A supplementary ordinance on the Day of Atonement 
(cf. esp. Xvi. 29-31, 34) emphasizing in particular (1) the sus- 
pension of all manner of work, as on the weekly Sabbath (verse 9), 


21 


a2 


23 





| Cea fa, rs i 2 
156 LEVITICUS 23. 28-34. B eens \ 


28 made by fire unto the Lorp. And ye shall do no 


manner of work in that same day: for it is a day of 
atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lorp 


29 your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be 


afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from his 


30 people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any 


manner of work in that same day, that soul will I destroy 


31 from among his people. Ye shall do no manner of 


work : it is a statute for ever throughout your generations 


32 in all your dwellings. It shall be unto you a sabbath of 


2 


solemn rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth 
day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye 
keep your sabbath. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
tthe children of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of 





not merely of all ‘servile work’ as on the other festival-days 
(7, 21, 35), and (2) the observance of a twenty-four hours’ fast. 
For this meaning of ‘ afflicting’ the soul, see note on xvi. 29. 

32. from even unto even: the usual mode of reckoning in the 
O.T. The fast began, as it still does, with the sunset which 
closed the ninth of Tishri, and ended at sunset on the following 
day. 


33-36. The date and duration of the feast of Booths (from P). 
This, the third and last, and apparently the most popular, of the 
agricultural festivals, is named in the oldest legislation ‘the feast 
of ingathering’ (‘a@siph1, Exod. xxiii. 16, xxxiv.22). It marked the 
close of the labours of the year in field, vineyard and oliveyard 
(see the passages just cited, and cf. Deut. xvi. 1g, ‘after that thou 
hast gathered in from thy threshing-floor and from thy wine- 
press’). In D and H (verses 4o ff. below) the duration of the 
festival is given as seven days, and so here originally (verse 34). 
The addition of an eighth day looks like the work of a later hand. 


1 This word, which in O. T. occurs only in the two passages cited, 
has been found on a limestone tablet recently (1908) unearthed at 
Gezer, which is evidently a sort of farmer's calendar. For the 
contents of this interesting document and its illustrative value for 
the O. T. student, see PEF St. 1909, and Marti in ZATW, xxix 
(1909), 222 ff, 


LEVITICUS 23. 35-39.: P# 157 


this seventh month is the feast of * tabernacles for seven 
days unto the Lorp. On the first day shall be an holy 35 
convocation: ye shall do no servile work. Seven days 36 
ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lorn: 
on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you ; 
and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the 
LorD: it is a solemn assembly ; ye shall do no servile 
work. 

These are the set feasts of the Lorn, which ye shall 37 
proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering 
made by fire unto the Lorp, a burnt offering, and a 
meal offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, each on its 
own day: beside the sabbaths of the Lorn, and beside 38 
your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your 
freewill offerings, which ye give unto the Lorp. 

Howbeit on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, 39 
[H| when ye have gathered in the fruits of the land, ye 
shall keep the feast of the Lorp seven days: on the first 


® Heb. booths. » Or, closing festival 








On this point a comparison of 1 Kings vili. 66 with 2 Chron. vii. 9 f. | 
is instructive. The eighth day became ultimately ‘the great day 
of the feast’ (John vii. 37). In the O, T. also, the feast of Booths 
is frequently referred to as ‘the feast’ par excellence (cf. ‘the feast 
of Yahweh,’ verse 39), and is probably to be identified with the 
festive gatherings recorded in such passages as Judges xxi. a1 ff, 
t Sam. i. 3 ff., 21, &c. See further Num, xxix. 12-38. 

34. the feast of tabernacies. The marginal rendering ‘booths’ 
is to be preferred throughout, see on verses 40-42 below. 

36. it is a solemn assembly: a technical term of the cultus 
applied also in Deut. xvi. 8 to the seventh day of Mazzoth (see 
Driver, Commentary, in loc.). The alternative rendering in the 
margin is based on a mistaken etymology. 

$87. Part of the colophon or subscription to P’s festal calendar, 
now separated from its proper close, verse 44, by the insertion of 


39-43, the celebration of the feast of Booths from the calendar 
of H. H has here, as in the previous extract. been supplemented 
with a view to secure greater harmony with P. This explains the 


40 


42 


43 


ere | 


oa 


158 LEVITICUS 23. 40-43. af f. 


day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be 
a solemn rest. And ye shall take you on the first day 
the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and 
boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye 
shall rejoice before the Lorp your God seven days. 
And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lorp seven days 
in the year: it is a statute for ever in your generations : 
ye shall keep it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell 
in booths seven days; all that are homeborn in Israel 
shall dwell in booths: that your generations may know 
that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, 
when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am 


precise dating at the beginning ot verse 39, which now precedes 
the more general terms of H; ‘when ye have gathered in the 
fruits,’ &c. (cf. D’s similar phraseology in Deut. xvi. 13 given 
above, and verse to of this chapter). Since the feast lasts only 

seven days according to H (40 ff.)—so also in D—the ‘eighth day" 

of 39 is also editorial and harmonistic; cf. Num. xxix. 35 ff 

40. boughs of thick trees: probably rather ‘ of leafy trees,’ 
trees with thick, intertwining foliage, and so giving protection 
against the sun’s heat. The purpose in view is the construction 
of booths in which the worshippers lived during the feast, as is 
evident from the narrative of Neh. viii. 15 ff. This custom doubt- 
less had its origin in the habit of living during the vintage season 
in extemporized erections such as are here contemplated, In the 
Greek period it became the custom for the male worshippers at 
this feast to carry in one hand a ‘ bouquet’ (Heb. /#/ab) composed 
of a palm leaf with twigs of myrtle and willow, and in the other 
a citron (cf. the description of the ceremony in 2 Mace, x. 7). 

The /#/ab and citron were adopted as a type on coins of the 
second revolt (see plate of illustrations to the writer's article 
‘Money’ in Hastings’s DB. iii. No. 20). 

42. The feast of Booths, which, like the other two harvest 
festivals, was presumably adopted from the Canaanites after the 
conquest, here receives a new Significance as a festival com- 
memorating Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness. The feast of 
Mazzoth had already been associated with the Exodus (Exod. 
xiii. 3, Deut. xvi. 3); it only remained for the Jews in the post- 
biblical period to associate the feast of Weeks with the giving of 
the law on Sinai. 


LEVITICUS 23. 4424.5. HP 159 


the Lorp your God. [P] And Moses declared unto 44 
the children of Israel the set feasts of the Lorp. 


[P] * And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Com- 24: 
mand the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure 
olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn 
continually. Without the veil of the testimony, in the 3 
tent of meeting, shall Aaron order it from evening to 
morning before the Lorp continually: it shall be a 
_statute for ever throughout your generations. He shall 4 
order the lamps upon the pure candlestick — the 
LorpD continually. 


And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes 5 


* See Ex. xxvii. 20, 21. » Or, to set up a lamp continually 











xxiv. consists of two distinct parts. In the first part we have 
regulations regarding the lamps of the tabernacle (verses 1-4), 
and the shewbread (5-9) ; in the second part laws directed against 
the crimes of blasphemy and assault (10-23). The reasons which 
led to the insertion of these laws and regulations at this point can 
only be conjectured. The bulk of the chapter shows the closest 
affinity to P; but in verses 15-22 we have, in the main, an extract 
with the distinctive phraseology of H. 


1-4. The seven lamps of the tabernacle lampstand are to be fed 
with the finest olive oil and attended to by the High Priest in 
person—an almost exact parallel to Exod. xxvii. 20, 21. 

4. the pure candlestick: properly ‘lampstand,’ as minutely 
described in Exod. xxv. 31-40 (see the illustration prepared for the 
writer’s art. ‘Tabernacle’ in Hastings’s DB., iv. 663). It is here 
and elsewhere termed ‘ pure,’ because made of pure gold, cf. ‘the 
pure table’ of shewbread, verse 6 below. 


5-9. Directions for the preparation of the shewbread, literally 
the presence-bread, as Exod. xxv. 30, R.V. margin, of which verse 
this section is the supplement. For the history and significance 
of this interesting part of the Hebrew ritual see the art. ‘Shew- 
bread,’ of. cit. iv. 495 ff. The number of cakes, which has its exact 
‘counterpart in the presence-bread ‘ahal pani) of the Babylonian 
temple ritual ( KAT*, 600) had no doubt a reference to the twelve 


8 


9 


“Io 


It 





160 LEVITICUS 24.611 B 


thereof: two tenth parts of an ephah shall be ; 
6 And thou shalt set them in *two rows, six On a row, 
7 upon the pure table before the Lorp. And thou shalt 
put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be to 
the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire 
unto the Lorp. Every sabbath day he shall set it in” 
order before the Lorp continually; it is °on the behalf 
of the children of Israel, an everlasting covenant. And 
it shall be for Aaron and his sons; and they shall eat it 
in a holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the 
offerings of the Lorp made by fire by a  pasang 
statute. 





.And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was 
an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel: and 
the son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel 
strove together in the camp ; and the son of the Israelitish 


* Or, two piles, six ina pile > Or, pile  *© Or, from 








tribes of Israel, on behalf of whom (verse 8) the shewbread was 
presented, from Sabbath to Sabbath, as a symbolical expression of 
the nation’s gratitude to God as the continual source of every 
material blessing. 

5. two tenth parts of an ephah : “two ‘issarons,’ for which 
see on v, Ir. ' 

6. in two rows: the margin, ‘in two piles,’ is probably to be 


preferred. 
7. pure frankincense ...memorial. See note on ii. 2, 
9. in a holy place... most holy. See note on ii. 3. 


10-23. The kernel of this section is contained in verses 15-22, 
an extract from the Holiness Code—note the signature of H at 
the end of 22—dealing with the crime of blasphemy and with the 
penalties to be inflicted on those causing injury to man or beast. 
This extract has been fitted by a late priestly redactor into 
a framework intended to illustrate by a concrete case the punish- 
ment to be meted out to the blasphemer. The narrative of the 
sabbath-breaker in Num. xv, 32 ff. is an exact parallel. 


LEVITICUS 24. 12-21. PH 161 


woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed: and they 
brought him unto Moses. And his mother’s name was 
Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. 
And they put him in ward, that it might be declared 
unto them at the mouth of the Lorp. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Bring forth 
him that hath cursed without the camp ; and let all that 
heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the 
congregation stone him. {H] And thou shalt speak unto 
the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God 
shall bear his sin. And he that blasphemeth the name 
of the Lorp, he shall surely be put to death; all the 
congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the 
stranger, as the homeborn, when he blasphemeth the 
name of the LORD, shall be put to death. And he that 
smiteth any man mortally shall surely be put to death; 
and he that smiteth a beast mortally shall make it good: 
life for life. And if a man cause a blemish in his 
neighbour ; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him ; 
breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he 
hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be rendered 
unto him. And he that killeth a beast shall make it 
good: and he that killeth a man shall be put to death. 





11. blasphemed the Name. This substitute for the Divine 
proper name, although continually used in later Jewish writings, 
ean scarcely be original here ; read either ‘ Yahweh’ alone, or as 
in 16% ‘the name of Yahweh,’ which the LXX also reads in 16” 
(note the italics of R. V.). 

15. Whosoever... shall bear his sin. Both the formulation 
and the phraseology have numerous, parallels in the preceding 
sections of H. 

17-21. Aseries of illustrations of the ancient 7us falionis, or law 
of retaliation, ‘life for life,’ ‘eye for eye,’ &c.; see the earlier 
toroth of the Book of the Covenant, Exod, xxi. 23-25; and cf. 
Deut. xix. 21; Matt. v.38. The jus ¢alionis plays a large part in 
the criminal code of Hammurabi (Cook, of. cit., 249 f.). 

M 


20 


2r 


162 LEVITICUS 24. 22—25. PE ae 


22 Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, 
as for the homeborn: for I am the Lorp your God. 

23 [P] And Moses spake to the children of Israel, and they 
brought forth him that had cursed out of the camp, and 
stoned him with stones. And the children of Israel did 
as the LorD commanded Moses. 


25 [HH] And the Lorp spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, 





22. Cf. Exod. xii. 49; Num. ix. 14, Xv. 15, 29. ey il 
23. The original close of P’s narrative in verses 10-14. 


Chapter xxv is the natural continuation of xxiii, The Toys of 
sacred seasons is here completed by the addition of the seventh 
year, usually termed the sabbatical year, and of the fiftieth or year 
of Jubilee. With the latter is connected a series of provisions 
dealing with the land and with slaves. 

The chapter, as it now stands, presents numerous 
literary and historical, which cannot be kept yy of : which 
only a probable solution can at best be offere As regards the 
literary problems, all critics are agreed in recognizing the legisla- 
tion of H in verses 2°-7 (note the introductory phrase ¢ 
of H: ‘when ye come into the land,’ &c.; cf. xix. 23, Xxiii. Io). 
These verses find their natural continuation in 17-22, 
humanitarian spirit of the Holiness' Code may also be recognized 
in 35-40 and in other isolated verses. There is likewise unanimi 
in the allocation of verses 26-34 and of 48-52, at least, ‘to 
a secondary stratum of the priestly legislation (P*),. The chief 
difficulty is met with in verses 8-13, and here the literary criteria 
are not, in the present writer’s opinion, decisive. All turns on 
the crucial question, did the year of Jubilee have a place in the 
Holiness Code? The balance of probability seems to be in fayour 
of the negative view. The subject is too large and complicated 
for adequate discussion here There is much foree, (however, in 
the argument advanced by Paton (Journ. of Bib. Lit, xviii. 46) that 





1 For further information on the literary and historical problems 
raised by this chapter, the student is referred to the larger commentaries 
of Dillmann-Ryssel, Bertholet, and Baentsch; Driver’ and White’s 
Leviticus (translation and notes), tn loc. ; C-H. i. §4f., iv 177 f.; 
Wellhausen, Composition d. Hexat.® 164 ff; Hatietds 
art. ‘Sabbatical Year (including Jubile Year and land laws),’ in 
Hastings’s DB. iv.; Nowack’s Heb. Archdologie, ii. 165 ff. ; Paton, in 
Journ. of Bib. Lit. xviii. 43 ff.; Fenton, Barly Hebrew Life, 66-74. 


LEVITICUS 25: 2-4. Hf 163 


saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 2 
them, When ye come into the land which ‘I give you, 
then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lorp. Six 3 
years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt 
prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruits thereof; but 4 
in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for 
the land, a sabbath unto the Lorp: thou shalt neither 
sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which 5 
groweth of itself of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, and 
the grapes of thy undressed vine thou shalt not gather: 
it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. And the 6 
sabbath of the land shall be for food for you ; for thee, 
and for thy servant and for thy maid, and for thy hired 
servant and for thy stranger that sojourn with thee; and ; 


if the author of H had given the Jubilee a place in his code, he 
would surely have referred to it in verses 18-22 of this chapter 
(see notes on these and on verses 11 f.). In the analysis of the 
text, accordingly, verses 8-13 are assigned wholly to P (P°). 

1-7.’ The law of the sabbatical year (H)... In the Book of the 
Covenant we have the beginnings of the Hebrew poor Jaw in the 
provision that a field must lie fallow every seventh year, ‘that 
the poor of thy people may eat’ (Exod. xxiii. rr). It is not 
- required that all the fields on a holding, still less that all the fields 
on all the holdings in Palestine, shall lie fallow simultaneously. 
This, however, is what the law of this section requires. The 
motive, also, is entirely different from that underlying the older 
custom of the seventh year fallow. Religion here takes the place 
of humane consideration for the poor. : The land must be afforded 
an opportunity of keeping God’s holy sabbath; ‘the land shall 
keep a sabbath unto Yahweh.’ From xxvi. 34f. it is evident that 
no such sabbath was observed under the monarchy. In the post- 
exilic literature it is first mentioned in connexion with Ezra’s 
reform (Neh. x.31). From the time of the Maccabees, however, 
the sabbatical year was a recognized institution of Judaism. 

4. a sabbath of solemn rest. See on xvi.3I. 

G. the sabbath of the land: an unique expression denoting 
the natural produce of the land in the ‘sabbath’ year. Of this 
the farmer, with his household and cattle, is to be allowed full 
use; no mention is made of the rights of the poor. For the 
‘stranger’ (t0shabh) of this verse, see on xxii. 10, 


M 2 


Lah ic 0 ll 
164 LEVITICUS 25. 8-11. uP 


for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, 
shall all the increase thereof be for food. Ra 

8 [P] And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years 
unto thee, seven times seven years; and there shall be 
unto thee the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty 

9 and nine years. Then shalt thou send abroad the loud 
trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month ; in the 
day of atonement shall ye send abroad the trumpet 

to throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the 
fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land 
unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto 
you ; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, 


rr and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubile 


Lan] 


8-13. The main law of the year of Jubilee (P*). The probability 
is, as has been explained above, that we have here the ideal of 
a later legislator, in which the sabbath principle is carried to its 
extreme limit. Even Jewish tradition admits that the provisions 
of this and allied sections were never carried out as here detailed. 

8. thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years: render 
‘seven weeks of years’ (cf. the sense of ‘sabbath’ in xxiii. 15). 
As Pentecost fell upon the day after a week of weeks—hence its 
name ‘the feast of Weeks ’—so the Jubilee year was the (fiftieth) ; 
year following seven weeks of years, 

9. The Jubilee is to be ushered in by a blast on a ram’s horn, - 
the ‘trumpet’ of the text, on the old New Year's Day, the tenth 
of Tishri (see for this the note on xxiii. 23 ff.). Afterwards, when 
the year began on the first of Tishri, the terith was appropriated 
for the new festival of the Day of Atonement (xvi. 29, xxiii. 27). 
This explains the mistaken gloss in the second part of the verse. 
The joy of Jubilee is altogether incompatible with the meaneey 
of the ‘great fast.’ 

10. it shall be a jubile unto you: more explicitly ‘a pear of 
jubile,’ as in verses 13, 28, &c. The English word:is derived 
ultimately from the Hebrew original, yobél, a ram’s horn (see 
Josh. vi. 4 and R. V. marg.). The year was’so named from the 
blast by which it was announced. 

ye shall return... family: here we have the two out- 

_ standing features of the Jubilee—the restoration of land that has 

been alienated, and the restitution of liberty to those in servitude 
(see further verses 13, 28, 40 ff.). 

11, The prohibitions of H’s sabbatical year (q f, above) are 


7 LEVITICUS 25. 12-19. PHPH 165 


shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, 
neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather 
the grapes in it of the undressed vines. For it is a jubile; 
it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase 
thereof out of the field. In this year of jubile ye shall 
return every man unto his possession: [H] And if thou 
sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buy of thy neighbour’s 
hand, ye shall not wrong one another: [P] according 
to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of 
thy neighbour, avd according unto the number of years 
of the crops he shall sell unto thee. According to the 
multitude of the years thou shalt increase the price 
thereof, and according to the fewness of the years thou 
shalt diminish the price of it; for the number of the 
crops doth he sell unto thee. [H] And ye shall not wrong 
one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the 
Lorp your God. Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, 
and keep my judgements and do them; and ye shall 
dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield 


transferred by PS to his year of jubilee. Since every forty-ninth 
year was a sabbatical year, this means that the whole land was to 
lie fallow for two consecutive years... Was this ever practicable? 
See the objection which the author of H anticipates in verse 20 to 
the universal fallow of every seventh year alone. What appears 
to be the legitimate inference from his silence as to the very much 
greater inconvenience of two fallow years in succession has been 
already stated. 

15 f. In the buying and selling of land it is laid down that 
what is really conveyed to the purchaser is not the land, but the 
crops it will produce between the date of the transaction and the 
next Jubilee when the land reverts to the seller. 

17, repeating the moral precept of verse 14, bears at its close 
the signature of H. 


18-22. The continuation of the law of the sabbatical year (2-7), 
intended to meet the natural objection to the new demand for 
a simultaneous fallow of the whole agricultural land. 


12 


13 
14 


15 


6 


Ll 


Cl 


9 





166 LEVITICUS 25. 20-25. Hf 


her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in 
20 safety. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the 
seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in 
21 our increase: then I will command my blessing upon 
you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for 
22 the'three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and 
eat of the fruits, the old store ; until the ninth year, until 
23 her fruits come in, ye shall eat the old store. [P] And 
the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is 
mine: for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. 
24 [H] And in all the land of your possession ye shal 
grant a redemption for the land. ituttt 


25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and sell some of his 
possession, then shall his kinsman that is next unto him 


21 £. By the Divine blessing upon it, the land, in the sixth year, 
will produce sufficient for the needs of ‘the three years.’ Which 
three? The experience of the present day in Syria shows that, 
after lying fallow for a year, a field requires several ploughings 
before it can be sown.. The consequence is that sowing cannot 
be begun till the following spring—the eighth year of verse 22— 
and the crop is not available till late autumn, when ‘the ninth 
year’ has begun. 

23. the land is mine: a characteristic thought of the Priests’ 
Code. Palestine is Yahweh’s land; His people hold their lands 
in fee from Him. ‘The idea that the Israelites are Jehovah's 
clients, sojourning in a land where they have no rights of their 
own, but are’ absolutely dependent on His bounty, is one of the 
most characteristic notes of the néw and more timid type of piety 
that distinguishes post-exilic Judaism ‘from the’ religion of old 
Israel’ (W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem.? 78). 


24-25. Provision for the redemption of land, a fragment of H’s 
land laws, entirely independent of the institution of the Jubilee. 

25. his kinsman... shall redeem, &c.: ‘kinsman’ renders the 
Heb. god (lit. ‘one who vindicates a claim’), an important term 
of Hebrew jurisprudence. Of the duty here incumbent on the 
goel, or next of kin, the classical illustrations in O.T. are found in 
Jeremiah xxxii. 8-12, and Ruth iv.1 ff. For a similar duty see 
below, verses 48 f., and for others the arts.‘ Goel’ in DB. and 
EBi. i ate i 


LEVITICUS 25. 26-32, HP 167 


come, and shall redeem that which his brother hath sold. 
[P] And if a man have no one to redeem it, and he be 26 
waxen rich and find sufficient to redeem it; then let 27 
him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the 
overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; and he shall 
return unto his possession. But if he be not able to get 28 
it back for himself, then that which he hath. sold shall 
remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the 
year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he 
shall return unto his possession. 

And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, 29 
then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is 
sold ; for a full year shall he have the right of, redemp- 
tion.. And if it be not redeemed within the space of 30 
a full year, then the house that is in the walled city 
shall be made sure in perpetuity to him that bought it, 
throughout his generations; it shall not go out in the 
jubile. But the houses of the villages which have no 31 
wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields 
of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall 
go out in the jubile. Nevertheless the cities of the 32 
Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, may 


— 


26-28. With the preceding extract from H, the editor has 
combined another from P. In modern phrase, the original vendor 
buys back his property by refunding to the purchaser the pro- 
portion of the price corresponding to the years that had still to 
run of the jubilee period (cf. verses 15, 50 ff.). 

29-34. The law requiring the universal restitution of alienated 
property in the fiftieth year is not to apply to houses in walled 
cities. In these, however, the vendor retains the right of redemp- 
tion for a whole year after the sale. In the case of the Levitical 
cities (for these see Num. xxxv) again, the vendor has a perpetual 
right of redemption, but if this right is not exercised, his property 
returns to him at the jubilee. Levitical property, even in a city, 
is as inalienable as real estate in the country. 


168 LEVITICUS 25: 33-4. BH 


33 the Levites redeem at any time. And if *one of the 
Levites »redeem, then the house that was sold, and the 
city of his possession, shall go out in the jubile: for the 
houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession 

34 among the children of Israel. But the field of the 
€suburbs of their cities may not be sold: for it is their 
perpetual possession. 

35  [H] And if thy brother be waxen poor, and his hand 
fail with thee ; then thou shalt “uphold him: as a stranger 

36 and a sojourner shall he live with thee: Take thou no 
usury of him or increase; but fear thy God: that th 

37 brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give hina 
thy money upon usury, nor give him thy victuals for 

38 increase. I am the Lorp your God, which brought you 
forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the oa 
of Canaan, to be your God. 

39 ° And if thy brother be waxen poor with thee, and sell 
himself unto thee; thou shalt not make him to serve as 

40 a bondservant: as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, 


* Or, a man redeem from the Levites ¥ Or, after the ——s 
redeem not © Or, pasturé lands 4 Or, re 


33. Read as in the margin: ‘if one of the Levites do not re- 
deem it’; the negative has fallen out. 

34. the field of the suburbs: render; ‘but fields in the pasture 
lands,’ as R.V. margin. For these ‘suburbs’ or pastirie lands see 
on Num, xxv. 2 ff. 


35-38. The practicallove of one’s ‘neighbour’ in the sense cat 
xix. 18 (which see), also from H. 

36. Take thou no usury of him or increase: the terms of the 
original both denote interest, the former interest on loans of 
money, the latter interest on other advances such as food-stufis 
(see verse 37), seed corn and the like, which was paid in kind. 
This species of loan played a large part in the economics of 
Babylonia (see Johns, Bab. and Assyr. Laws, ch. xxiii). Parallels 
from earlier codes in Exod. xxii. 25; Deut. xxiii. 19 f. 

39-46. Differential treatment of slaves of Hebrew and non- 
Hebrew nationality, based on the dignity of even the poorest 


BE VETICUS 25. 4549. PHP HP 169 


he shall be with thee; [P] he shall serve with thee unto 
the year of jubile: then shall he go out from thee, he 41 
and his children with him, and shall return unto his 
own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall 
he return. For they are my servants, which I brought 42 
forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as 
bondmen. [H] Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour ; 43 
but shalt fear thy God. [P] And as for thy bondmen, 44 
and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have; of the 
nations that are round about you, of them shall ye buy 
_bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of 45 
the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall 
ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which 
they have begotten in your land: and they shalt be your 
possession. And ye shall make them an inheritance for 46 
your children after you, to hold for a possession; of 
them shall ye take your bondmen for ever: but over 
your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule, 
one over another, with rigour. 

[H] And if a stranger or sojourner with thee be waxen 47 
rich, and thy brother be waxen poor beside him, and sell 
himself unto the stranger 97 sojourner with thee, or to 
the stock of the stranger’s family: [P] after that he 48 
is sold he may be redeemed; one of his brethren may 
redeem him: or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem 49 
him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may 
redeem him; or if he be waxen rich, he may redeem 





Hebrew as a member of Yahweh’s ‘peculiar people’ (cf. also 
verse 55). Kindness based on religion, the fear of God (verse 
43), is the keynote of this section of the law. The terms with 
which the extract from P opens in verse qo silently abrogate the 
more humane provisions of the earlier codes, by which a slave 
went free after six full years’ servitude (Exod. xxi. 3; Deut. xv. 12). 
. 47-55. Provision for the redemption of a Hebrew compelled 


170 LEVITICUS 25.°50—26. 1. PHRE aie 
50 himself. And he shall reckon with him that bought) 
him from the year that he sold himself to him unto the 
year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be accord- 
ing unto the number of years; according to the time of 
51 an hired servant shall he be with him, If there be yet 
many years, according unto them he shall give back the 
price of his redemption out of the money that he was 
52 bought for. And if there remain but few years unto the 
year of jubile, then he shall reckon with him ; according 
unto his years shall he give back the price of his re- 
53 demption. [H} As a servant hired year by year shall he 
be with him: he shall not rule;with rigour over him in 
54 thy sight. [P] And if he be not redeemed *by these 
means, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, he, and 
55 his children with him. [HH] For unto me the children of 
Israel are servants ; they are my servants whom I brought 
forth out of the,land of Egypt: Iam the Lorp|your God. 


26 [HB] Ye shall make you no idols, neither shall ye rear 


* Or, i these years > See ch, xix. 4,) 5) 





to sell himself as a slave to a neighbouring alien. int the 
similar situation in 25-28, the duty of redeeming him falls upon 
his next, of kin in succession, as in the case of Ruth (iii, 12 fi, 
iv. 4). The redemption price is to be calculated on Perso 
principle as before. This section also is pervaded by the thought 
that a Hebrew can never be more than nominally a slave to any 
human master, since-God has chosen him for His servant. 


i) xxvi. The close of the Holiness Code in the form of a hortatory 
address. 

‘On the inculcation of two fundamental commands of the 
theocracy, the avoidance of image-worship»(ef. xix. 4), and the 
observance’ of the Sabbaths with reverence for the sanctuary 
(xix. 30), follows a recital of the material and spiritual blessings 
which will be Israel’s portion in case of obedience (verses 3-13), 
then five severe threatenings for the case of disobedience (14-19). 
Only the penitent confession of their sins and the expiation of 
their guilt in the land of their enemies will induce Yahweh to 


LEVITICUS 26. 2-4. H 171 


you up a graven image, or “a pillar, neither shall ye place 
any figured stone in your land, to bow down P unto it: 
for I am the Lorp your God. Ye shall keep my sab- 
baths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lorp. 

If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my command- 3 
ments, and do them ; then I will give your rains in their 


* Or, an obelisk - |» Or, thereon 





remember His covenant with them and to restore them once more 
to His favour’ (Kautzsch), 

The Holiness Code closes with an impressive address in which 
the Divine Lawgiver with promise and threat exhorts His 
covenant people to observe its requirements. In the same 
manner the earlier Book of the Covenant and the Deuteronomic 
Code had been brought to a close (see Exod. xxiii. 20-33; Deut. 
xxvill. 1-68). On the latter passage, more particularly, the com- 
piler of H has modelled his address. The most remarkable 
literary feature of this chapter, however, is the extraordinary 
number of expressions which it has in common with the book of 
Ezekiel. Lists of these parallels are given by Driver, LOT.® 
747 f., by the editors of the Oxford Hexateuch (C-H. i. 150 f.), 
and in all the larger commentaries (the chapter should be studied 
with the help of a good reference Bible). The main point at 
issue is the question as to which of the two, Ezekiel or H, is 
dependent on the other, as on the answer depends the date of the 
compilation of the Holiness:Code. This subject has been dis- 
cussed in its place in the Introduction, and the conclusion come 
to that the dependence is on the part of Ezekiel, on the ground 
mainly that there are expressions in Lev. xxvi, not found in 
Ezekiel, that show we have here to do with an author of marked 
originality both in thought and expression. 

1#, The discourse opens with a brief summary of ‘the funda- 
mental principles of the Hebrew religion, containing ‘the 
quintessence of the foregoing legislation” (Baentsch).. Cf. note 
on xix. 3 f. 

or 2 pillar:) the maszébah, or standing stone, so frequently 
mentioned in the O. T. among the appurtenances. of the ‘ high 
places,’ 

any figured stone: also Num. xxxiii. 52, a stone with some 
idolatrous image or symbol carved upon it. 


3-13. Promise of blessings, material and spiritual, in case of 
obedience. The parallel promises of Deut. xxviii, 1-14 should 
be compared. 


172 LEVITICUS 26. §-14. “Hf 


season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the 
5 trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your thresh- 
ing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall 
reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread 
6 to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will 
give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none 
shall make you afraid: and I will cause evil beasts to 
cease out of the land, neither shall the sword go through 
7 your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they 
8 shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you 
shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall 
chase ten thousand: and your enemies slHall fall before 
9 you by the sword. And I will have respect unto you, 
and make you fruitful, and multiply you; and will estab- 
Io lish my covenant with you. And ye shall eat old store 
long kept, and ye shall bring forth the old *because of 
11 the new. And I will set my tabernacle among you: and 
12 my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among 
you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. 
13T am the Lorp your God, which brought you forth out 
of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bond- 
men; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and 
made you go upright. 


1¢ But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all 
® Or, from before 





5. With the promise of the first half of the verse, cf. Amos ix. rg. 

7 f£. Cf. Joshua xxiii. 10, ‘for Yahweh your God, he it is that 
fighteth for you.’ : 

10. because of the new: i.e. to make room for the new 
(Driver, Kautzsch). This verse interrupts the recital of the 
religious blessings in 9, 11 f., and has perhaps become displaced 
from its original position after 5. 


14-39. The punishments that will follow disobedience, These 
are arranged in five groups of increasing severity, viz. : (1) sick- 


LEVITICUS 26. 15-22. H 173 


these commandments ; and if ye shall reject my statutes, 
and if your soul abhor my judgements, so that ye will 
not do all my commandments, but break my covenant ; 
I also will do this unto you; I will appoint terror over 
you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the 
eyes, and make the soul to pine away : and ye shall sow 
your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I 
will set my face against you, and ye shall be smitten 
before your enemies: they that hate you shall rule over 


BS 


16 


17 


you ; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. And if 18 


ye will not yet for these things hearken unto me, then I 
will chastise you seven times more for your sins. And 
I will break the pride of your power; and I will make 
your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: and your 
strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not 
yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land 
yield their fruit. And if ye walk contrary unto me, and 
will not hearken unto me ; I will bring seven times more 
plagues upon’ you according to your sins. And I will 
send the beast of the field among you, which shall rob 
you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make 
you few in number; and your ways shall become 


ness and defeat (verses 16 f.), (2) famine (19 f.), (3) wild beasts 
(2r f.), (4) a siege with its accompanying privations and disease 
(23-26), and finally (5) the crowning disaster of national destruction 
and exile (27-39). Inthe literary treatment of these topics there 
are numerous reminiscences of Deut. xxviii. 15 ff.; cf. also Ezek. 
v. I-17. 

19. the pride of your power: the power or strength of which 
ye are proud, a favourite expression of Ezekiel (xxiv. 21, xxx. 6, 
18, xxxiii. 28). 

21. if ye walk contrary unto me: in defiant opposition to the 
Divine will, a strong expression peculiar to this chapter, cf. verses 
23, 27, 40, and in the converse sense of Yahweh, 24, 28, 41. 
‘ Plague’ in this verse is to be understood in its etymological sense 
of ‘stroke’ (see on xiii. 2), ‘I will further smite you sevenfold.’ 


_ 


20 


2r 


ot a 
174 LEVITICUS 26. 23-3. H 


23 desolate. And if by these things ye will not be reformed 
24*unto me, but will walk contrary unto me; then will 
I also walk contrary unto you; and I will smite you, 
25 even I, seven times for your sins. And I will bring 
a sword upon you, that shall execute the vengeance of 
the covenant ; and ye shall be gathered together within 
your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you ; 
and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 
26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall 
bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver 
your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not 
be satisfied. 
27 And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but 
28 walk contrary unto me; then I will walk contrary unto 
you in fury ; and I also will chastise you seven times for 
2g your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and 
30 the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I will 
destroy your high places, and cut down your sini 
® Or, by 





22. if... ye will not be reformed unto me: more literally, ‘if 
ye will not let yourselves be disciplined by me’ (cf. margin); the 
original is the reflexive of the verb rendered ‘ chastise’ in verses 
18, 28. The purpose of God’s chastisements is the moral dis- 
cipline of His people. ; 

25. the vengeance of the covenant: the punishment for the 
broken covenant. 

26. An illustration of the privations of a state of siege. Instead 
of each housewife firing the family bread in her own oven, a single 
oven suffices for the meagre siege allowance of ten families, and 

_ that doled out by weight. ; 


27-39. The culmination of the Divine threatenings ; Yahweh's 
forbearance is now at an end, He will chastise His unfaithful 
people ‘in fury.’ 

30. I will destroy your high places (bamdéth) : only: fete 
and Num. xxxiii. 52 in the Pentateuch is reference made by name 
to the local sanctuaries so frequently mentioned in the historical 
books. Taken over by the Hebrews from the Canaanites, they 


LEVITICUS 26. 31-37. H 175 


and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols ; 
and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your 31 
cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries unto desola- 
tion, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet 
odours. And I will bring the land into desolation : and 32 
your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at 
it. And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will 33 
draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be 
a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then 34 
shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth 
desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land ; even then 
shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as 35 
it lieth desolate it shall have rest; even the rest which 
it had not in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. 
And as for them that are left of you, I will send a faint- 36 
ness into their heart in the lands of their enemies: and 
the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they 
shall flee, as one fleeth from the sword ; and they shall 
fall when none pursueth. - And they shall stumble one 37 
upon another, as it were before the sword, when none 


became sources of contamination for the purer worship of Yahweh. 
See the writer’s art. ‘High Place’ in Hastings’s DB. (1909). 
your sun-images (/ammanini): rather ‘sun-pillars’ asso- 
ciated, as inscriptions show, with the worship of Baal-hamman, 
the Syrian sun-god. Cf. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4; Ezek. vi.4 ff 
34f. For the thought see xxv. 2. This passage shows that 
the law of the sabbatical year was unknown, or at least that it 
was not observed in the writer’s day. 
shall the land enjoy her sabbaths: the verb here, and in 
verse 43, rendered ‘enjoy’ seems to have been ‘used technically 
in connexion with the settlement of an account’ (Driver); the 
. idea is that in the exile the land, here personified (cf. xxv. 2), will 
receive payment of an overdue account in the long sabbath-rest 
which it will then enjoy, but which had been withheld from it 
hitherto. 
86 f. show that the author possessed the imagination of a poet 
as well as the eloquence of an orator. 


. 


176 LEVITICUS 26. 38-45) HE 


pursueth : and ye shall have no power to stand before 
38 your enemies. And ye shall perish among the nations, 
39 and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And 
they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity 
in your enemies’ lands ; and also in the iniquities of their 
40 fathers shall they pine away with them. And they shall 
confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, 
in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and 
also that because they have walked contrary unto me, 
411 also walked contrary unto them, and brought them 
into the land of their enemies: if then their uncireum- 
cised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the 
42 punishment of their iniquity ; then will I remember my 
covenant with Jacob ; and also my covenant with Isaac, 
and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember ; 
43 and I will remember the land. The land also shall be 
left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth 
desolate without them; and they shall accept of the 
punishment of their iniquity : because, even because they 
rejected my judgements, and their soul abhorred my 
44 statutes. And yet for all that, when they be in the land 
of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will 
I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my 
45 covenant with them: for I am the Lorn their God: but 
I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their 
ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of 





40-45. A good commentary on Psalm ciii. 8f. But penitence 
and confession must precede forgivenéss (cf. 1 John i. g) and 
restoration. The thought that the Divine discipline is for moral 
ends is again prominent, and in truth the exile proved to be 
Israel’s greatest school of discipline. Note also the prominence 
given to the covenant relation between God and Israel through 
the patriarchs (verse 42), the heroes of the Exodus (45). 

41. their uncircumcised heart: cf. Jer, iv, 4; Deut. x. 16, 


he 


——— 


LEVITICUS 26. 46—27.2. HP 177 


Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their 
God: I am the Lorp. 

These are the statutes and judgements and laws, 46 
which the Lorp made between him and the children 
of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses. 


[P] And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak 272 
unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When 
a man shall * accomplish a vow, » the persons shall be 


* Or, make a special vow > Or, according io thy estimation 
of persons unto the Lorb, then thy estimation &c. 





46. The colophon or subscription to the Holiness Code. The 
latter is Mosaic in so far as it is the reformulation and expansion 
of the legislative principles first laid down by Moses. 


Appendix.—CuHapTrer XXYVII. 
On THE CoMMUTATION OF VoTIVE OFFERINGS AND TITHES, 


As is suggested by its colophon (verse 34) modelled on xxvi. 46, 
the last chapter of Leviticus is of the nature of an appendix 
to H rather than to the whole preceding legislation. The 
contents belong to a late stratum of the priestly legislation, since 
acquaintance with the institution of the Jubilee is assumed. This 
association with the latter and with the rights of redemption 
(both in ch. xxv) may explain the present position of the 
chapter. 


1-8 deal with the procedure to be followed when the object 
vowed is a person. The case of Jephthah’s daughter (Judges xi. 
30 ff.) shows that in early times a human being might actually be 
sacrificed in fulfilment of a vow, while the story of Samuel 
illu8trates another form of dedication, viz. lifelong service at a 
sanctuary of Yahweh. When this chapter was written human 
sacrifice had long been disavowed. and laymen were no longer 
permitted to minister at the altar. If, therefore, a Hebrew vowed 
a member of his family to the deity, he must afterwards commute 
his offering for a sum of money according to the scale here 
provided. The valuation was apparently made on the basis of 
what may be called the market value of the individual's labour. 
The money was, of course, paid to the priests. 

2f. Render: ‘When a man makes to Yahweh a special vow 
(ef. margin) involving persons according to thy valuation, then 
thy valuation shall be for a male,’ &c. 


N 


i} ac: Dt Se 
178 LEVITICUS 27. 3-10. P 


3 for the Lonp by thy estimation. And thy estimation 
shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto 
sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels 

4 Of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary. And if it be 
a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels. 

5 And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years 
old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty 

6 Shekels, and for the female ten shekels. And if it be 
from a month old even unto five years old, then thy 
estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and 
for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of 

, silver. And if it be from sixty years old and upward ; 
if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen 

g shekels, and for the female ten shekels. But if he be 
poorer than thy estimation, then he shall be set before 
the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to 
the ability of him that vowed shall the priest value him. 

9 And if it be a beast, whereof men offer an oblation 
unto the Lorp, all that any man giveth of such unto the 

to LorD shall be holy. He shall not alter it, nor change it, 
a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at 
all change beast for beast, then both it and that for which 





3. after the shekel of the sanctuary. See the note on v. [5. 
Fifty silver shekels would represent a little under £7 of our 
money, but their true value in purchasing power would probably 
be nearer £20. 

8. Render: ‘ But if he (the person making the vow) be too pour 
to pay thy valuation, then he shall set him (the person vowed) 
before the priest,’ &c. 


9-13. Votive offerings of animals. Here the law distinguishes 
between ‘clean’ animals, admissible for a sacrifice, and unclean. 
Only in the case of the latter is commutation permitted. ‘ Holy’ 
at the end of verse g is exactly expressed by the modern term 
‘taboo’; the animal has become the property of the deity, and 
accordingly all profane use of it is interdicted (cf. the same 
expression in vi, 18 with note). 


LEVITICUS 27. 11-17.. P 179 


it is changed shall be holy. And if it be any unclean 
beast, of which they do not offer an oblation unto the 
Lorp, then he shall set the beast before the priest: and 
the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as 
thou the priest valuest it, so shall it be. But if he will 
indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part thereof 
unto thy estimation. 

And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy 
unto the Lorp, then the priest shall estimate it, whether 


it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall. 


it stand. And if he that sanctified it will redeem his 
house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of 
thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his. 

And if a man shall sanctify unto the Lorp part of the 
field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be accord- 
ing to the sowing thereof: the sowing of a homer of 
barley shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. If he 
sanctify his field from the year of jubile, according to thy 





13. From verse 27 we learn that two alternatives were open to 
him who vowed an unclean animal; either he might sell it and 
hand over the proceeds to the temple treasury—we are dealing 
here with post-exilic legislation—or he might redeem it by paying 
the priest’s valuation with a fifth part additional (cf. xxii. 14), 

14f. A house which had been vowed might be redeemed in 
the same way for a sum exceeding its valuation by 20 per cent. 

16-25. The commutation and redemption of land. Here, again, 
the law distinguishes between a field which a man has inherited 
(16-21), and one which he has himself bought (22-25). 

the sowing of a homer of barley: i.e. the amount of land 
which could be sown with a homer of barley-seed. The homer 
contained 10 ephahs or 30 seahs, roughly 11 bushels. In the 
Mishna ‘ the house of two seahs,’ as it is termed, is a field equal 
in area to the court of the Tabernacle, viz. 100 cubits by 50, circa 
1,195 square yards. A homer field, on this reckoning, would 
contain about 32 acres (for these estimates see ‘ Weights and 
Measures’ (Kennedy) in Hastings’s DB. iv. gto ff.). The valua- 
tion, it will be noted, is at the rate of one shekel for each year of 
the Jubilee period. 


N 2 


If 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


; eat aes | 
180 LEVITICUS 27. 18-23. B oe 


18 estimation it shall stand. But if he sanctify his field 
after the jubile, then the priest shall reckon unto him 
the money according to the years that remain unto the 
year of jubile, and an abatement shall be made from thy 

19 estimation. And if he that sanctified the field will in- 
deed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the 
money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be assured 

20 to him. And if he will not redeem the field, or if he 
have sold the field to another man, it shall not be re- 

21 deemed any more: but the field, when it goeth out in 

the jubile, shall be holy unto the Lorp, as a field 
devoted ; the possession thereof shall be the priest’s. 

2 And if he sanctify unto the Lorp a field which he hath 

3 bought, which is not of the field of his possession; then 

the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estima- 
tion unto the year of jubile: and he shall give thine 
estimation in that day, as a holy thing unto the Lorp. 

24 In the year of jubile the field shall return unto him of 

whom it was bought, even to him to whom the posses- 

sion of the land belongeth. And all thy estimations 
shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty 
gerahs shall be the shekel. 


te 
or 





18. The principle of abatement is that already met with in 
xxv. 50 ff. 

19 f. So far the author of the vow has only commuted it. The 
temple authorities, apparently, are still de jure the owners of the 
field, and if the former wishes to regain the rights of ownership 
he must redeem his field on the same terms as in the previous 
cases of redemption. If he fails to redeem, or has meanwhile 
sold it, the right of redemption lapses, and the field, at the next 
Jubilee, does not revert to him but becomes ‘ devoted’ to, i. e. the 
inalienable property of, Yahweh (see on verse 28). 

21-24. In the case of a field which a man has bought, the pre- 
ceding considerations do not apply, for the author of the vow has 
only the usufruct of the field till the next Jubilee, when it reverts 
to its original owner. 


LEVITICUS 27. 26-31. P r81 


Only the firstling among beasts, which is made a first- 
ling to the Lorp, no man shall sanctify it ; whether it be 
~ ox or sheep, it is the Lorp’s. And if it be of an unclean 
beast, then he shall ransom it according to thine estima- 
tion, and shall add unto it thé fifth part thereof: or if it 
be not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to thy 
estimation. 

Notwithstanding, no devoted thing, that a man shall 
devote unto the Lorp of all that he hath, whether of man 
or beast, or of the field of his possession, shall be sold or 
redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy unto the 
Lorp. None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, 
shall be ransomed ; he shall surely be put to death. 


26 


27 


28 


a1) 


And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of 30 


the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lorn’s: it is 
holy unto the Lorp. And if a man will redeem aught 





26 f. The firstlings of the herd and of the flock cannot be the 
object of a vow, for they already belong to Yahweh, see Exod. xiii. 
2,12, xxxiv. 19. But the firstlings of unclean animals have to be 
redeemed, as required by the older legislation (Exod. xiii. 13, 
xXXxiv. 20), or sold and the price handed to the priests, an 
alternative not contemplated in the passages cited. 

28 f. The law of the ban (Heb. herem, R.V. devoted thing). 
In his article ‘Ban’ in Hastings’s DB. (1909), the present writer 
has traced the history of this antique institution, of which he 
distinguishes three varieties in the O.T., the war ban of three 
degrees of stringency, the justice ban, and the private ban. In 
verse 28 the legislator deals with objects of the private ban which 
are declared to be irredeemable (cf. the practice of ‘Corban’ in 
N. T. times, Mark vii.11). In verse 29, on the other hand, the 
reference must be to the justice ban, in other words, to the judicial 
sentence by the proper authorities on such malefactors as the 
idolater (see Exod. xxii. 20, where note R.V. margin) and the 
blasphemer. 


30-33. The law of tithe, with which compare the legislation of 
D (Deut. xiv. 22-29, xxvi. 12 15), and elsewhere in P (Num. xviii. 
21-32). The chief point of interest here is the demand for the 
tithe of cattle, of which there is no mention elsewhere in the O,T, 


31 


182 LEVITICUS 27. 32-34. B sion’ 


of his tithe, he shall add unto it the fifth part thereof. 

32 And all the tithe of the herd or the flock, whatsoever 
passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the 

33 Lorv. He shall not search whether it be good or bad, 
neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, 
then both it and that for which it is changed shall be 
holy ; it shall not be redeemed. 

34 These are the commandments, which the Lorp com- 
manded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai. 





On this and other grounds most critics are inclined to regard 
verses 32 f. as a later addition to the original law of the vegetable 
tithe (for the tithes of the O.T. see, besides the articles in the 
recent Dictionaries of the Bible, Driver’s Deuteronomy (Intern. 
Crit, Series), pp. 166-73). 

32. whatsoever passeth under the rod. As they pass under 
the rod ‘of him that telleth them’ (Jer. xxxiii. 13), every tenth 
animal—it and no other (verse 33)—is to be the Lord’s. By 
a people in whose philosophy of life mere chance had no place, 
and for whom the lot was the recognized means of the Divine 
arbitrament, to do otherwise would have been regarded as an 
infringement of Yahweh’s freedom of choice. 


THE BOOK OF NUMBERS 


REVISED VERSION WITH ANNOTATIONS 





THE BOOK OF NUMBERS 


First Division. CHAPTERS I—X. Io. 
Laws AND REGULATIONS GIVEN AT SINAI. 


Tue first of the three divisions of the Book of Numbers (for 
these see sect. ii of the Introduction) brings to a provisional close 
the mass of priestly legislation, from different sources and of 
varying age, which was introduced in Exod. xix and continued 
throughout the whole of Leviticus. Since the erection of the 
Tabernacle, or rather of the ‘ Dwelling,’ in which, as the name 
denotes, God has condescended to take up His earthly abode as 
a sanctifying Presence in the midst of His chosen people, a com- 
plete month has elapsed (Num. i. r compared with Exod. xl. 1, 17). 
To this period we must assign, according to P’s chronology, the 
consecration and installation of Aaron and his sons as the priests 
of the wilderness sanctuary (Lev. viii-x). But the ideal organiza- 
tion of the sanctuary is not yet complete. To aid them in the 
subordinate duties of their office, the priests are to have attached 
to them (xviii. 2) their kinsmen of the tribe of Levi, forming 
a religious caste of lower theocratic rank than themselves, but 
distinct from the main body of the laity. 

Further, the whole ‘congregation,’ priests, Levites, and secular 
tribes, have still to receive their places in the camp. The Scheme 
of allocation, as will be more fully shown in due course (p. 194 f.), 
affords a striking illustration of the religious idealism of the author 
of the history of Israel’s sacred institutions (P%), for whom the 
Hebrew camp is a veritable city of God in the wilderness 
of Sinai. 

The arrangement of the camp and the installation of the Levites, 
then, are the main themes of the first division of this book. To 
these a good deal of legislative material has been added. The 
present arrangement of the whole is, to the western mind at least, 
confused and illogical. This lack of orderly arrangement is no 
doubt due in part to various amplifications which the original 
account (PS) has received at the hands of later priestly writers 
(P). The more important of such later passages will be pointed 
out in the notes, but quite apart from the impossibility of dis- 
tinguishing with certainty in all cases what is from Pf and what 
from later hands, it has not been thought advisable to occupy the 
limited space with details of the critical analysis. Accordingly the 
whole of this division has been entered as simply the product of 
the priestly school of legislators, i.e. as P without further qualifica- 
tion. The contents may be conveniently arranged in six sections, 


186 NUMBERS L. 1 PB 
[P] Anp the Lorp spake unto Moses in the wilderness 





for which see the Introduction, section ii, ‘Arrangement and 
Contents.’ 


(a) i-ii. The first census and the disposition of the camp. 4 

Moses is commanded to number all the males of the twelve 
secular tribes above twenty years of age, and to assign to each 
tribe its position in the camp relative to the sanctuary in the 
centre, as also its place in the line of march. The results of 
a similar census taken thirty-eight years later are given in ch. xxvi. 
In this connexion one recalls the very different attitude to census- 
taking reflected in the early narrative’ of David’s census in 
2 Sam. xxiv (see Cent. Bible, in loc.). 

1. in the wilderness of Sinai. It is labour lost to attempt to 
identify with any approach to precision the location of the Hebrew 
camp to be described in the sequel. It is extremely improbable 
that the author of P%, born and brought up in Babylonia, had an 
accurate knowledge of the geography of the wide tract of country 
extending from the Negeb (or South-land) of Judah to the 
extremity of the Sinaitic peninsula, and from the Egyptian 
frontier and the Gulf of Suez on the west to the Gulf of Akaba 
and the Arabah on the east. By 500 B.c. it may be assumed that 
the mount of the lawgiving, to which P gives the traditional name 
Sinai—in this following J in contrast to E and D who employ the 
alternative Horeb—was identified with one or other of the moun- 
tains of the peninsula which now bears its name. Of the rival 
peaks Jebel Serbal has the advantage not only of the evidence of 
the older monkish settlements, but of the neighbourhood of the 
only place where even a small community could have spent 
almost a whole year, the famous oasis in the Wady Feiran. Of 
the plain of er-Raha, beside Jebel Miisa and the peak of Ras 
Safsafeh, which has so many advocates of repute, the latest 
investigator emphatically asserts from personal experience that it 
is impossible for even a few hundred people to remain through 
a winter ‘in so barren and cold a place’ (C. T. Curelly, in Flinders 
Petrie’s Researches in Sinai, pp. 247 ff.). The most that can be 
said, therefore, is that the late Jewish tradition, #f based on know- 
ledge of the local conditions, may have intended the Wady Feiran 
by ‘the wilderness of Sinai,’ although it still remains a probable 
inference that for P it was merely the name, without precise 
geographical location, of the district in the peninsula in which 
the mount of legislation was situated. 

It should be added here that there is a growing inclination on 
the part of many recent scholars, based on the references in such 
early poems as the ‘ Song of Deborah’ (see Judges v. 4 f.), and the 
‘Blessing of Moses’ (Deut. xxxiii. 2), to locate the Sinai of the 





NUMBERS 1. 2-10. P 187 


of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the 
second month, in the second year after they were come out 

of the land of Egypt, saying, Take ye the sum of all the con- 2 
gregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by 
their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, 
every male, by their polls; from twenty years old and 3 
upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel, 
thou and Aaron shall number them by their hosts. And 4 
with you there shall be a man of every tribe ; every one 
head of his fathers’ house. And these are the names of 5 
the men that shall stand with you: of Reuben; Elizur 
the son of Shedeur. Of Simeon; Shelumiel the son of 6 
Zurishaddai. Of Judah; Nahshon the son of Amminadab. 7 
Of Issachar; Nethanel the son of Zuar. Of Zebulun; 8,9 
Eliab the son of Helon. . Of the children of Joseph: of to 
Ephraim ; Elishama the son of Ammihud: of Manasseh ; 








oldest Hebrew tradition on the western border of Edom, in 
the neighbourhood of Kadesh. To the present writer this seems 
a more probable site than one on the east of the Gulf Akaba, as has 
also been suggested. For recent literature see the introductory 
remarks to ch. xxxiii. 

2. The association of Aaron with Moses implied in the words 
‘Take ye,’ and expressed in the following verse ‘thou and Aaron,’ 
is seen from a comparison with verses 1* and 1g to be due to 
alater hand. This desire tc enhance the importance of Aaron is 
seen even more clearly in ix. 6°, the glossator having inadvertently 
left the original preposition ‘him,’ i.e. Moses, standing in verse 7. 

by their families, by theiz fathers’ houses: more precisely, 
‘by their clans (and) by their septs,’ the usual subdivisions of the 
larger unit, the tribe (Joshua vii. 16-18; 1 Sam. x. 19-21). Each 
tribe consisted of a number of clans, each clan of a number of septs. 

by their polls: lit. ‘skulls.’ The word poll ‘survives in 
poll-tax or head money, and the oll at elections, in which voters 
are counted by their polls or heads’ (Wright, The Bible 
Word-book). a 


5-16. The names of twelve assessors, one from each tribe, who 
are to assist Moses in the work of enumeration. With regard to 
the order in which the tribes are here named, those whose 


188 NUMBERS 1. 11-18. P 


11 Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. Of Benjamin ; Abidan , 
12 the son of Gideoni. Of Dan; Ahiezer the son of 
13 Ammishaddai. Of Asher; Pagiel the son of Ochran. 
14 Of Gad; Eliasaph the son of ®Deuel. Of Naphtali; 
5 Ahira the son of Enan. ‘These are they that were called 

of the congregation, the princes of the tribes of their 

fathers ; they were the heads of the » thousands of Israel. 
17 And Moses and Aaron took these men which are 
18 expressed by name: and they assembled all the con- 


“ In ch. ii. 14, Revel. > Or, families 


eponymous ancestors were reckoned as sons of Jacob’s legitimate 
wives take precedence of the reputed descendants of their hand- 
maids. For some reason, however, the sons of Rachel’s maid, 
Bilhah are separated by the insertion of Zilpah’s sons, in the 
order Asher, Gad, between Dan and Naphtali. The chief feature 
in the order of the census lists, both in i. 24 ff. and in xxvi. 5 ff., 
is the elevation of Gad to a position between Simeon and Judah 
(see below). For the special features of the camp order see the 
introductory note to ch. ii. 

For the sake of those interested in the study of Hebrew proper 
names as a likely source from which light may be thrown on the 
history of the religion of the Hebrews, it may be pointed out that 
of the twenty-four names of the assessors and their fathers, nine 
contain the Divine name El (= God), three the name Shaddai (see 
Exod. vi. 3), and the same number the old Divine title Zur (= rock), 
while six contain as their first element one or other of the Divine 
relationships, Abi-, the (divine) father, Ahi-, the (divine) brother, 
and Ammi-, the (divine) kinsman. For the wide range of problems 
which these names suggest see Buchanan Gray’s standard work, 
Studies in Hebrew Proper Names, and the art. ‘Names’ in EBz. 
As regards the twenty-four names before us, none of which, with 
two exceptions (Ruth iv. 20), is found outside Numbers, Gray con- 
cludes that ‘several of the names are unquestionably ancient, but 
the dist is certainly unhistorical’ (Commentary on Numbers, p. 6). 

14. Deuel: a copyist’s slip for Reuel, as it is in ii. 14. 

16. the thousands of Israel. Parallel to the division of the 
tribes into clans and septs we find a military organization into 
thousands, hundreds, and fifties (1 Sam. viii, 12, x. 19, &e.). In 
the passage last cited, ‘thousands’ is used as a synonym of 
‘clans’; here it appears to be synonymous with the smaller unit, 
the sept (cf. verse 4). 


NUMBERS 1, 19-25. P 189 


gregation together on the first day of the second month, 
and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by 
their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the 
names, from twenty years old and upward, by their poils. 
As the Lorp commanded Moses, so he numbered them 
in the wilderness of Sinai. 

And the children of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their 
generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, 
according to the number of the names, by their polls, 
every male from twenty years old and upward, all that 
were able to go forth to war; those that were numbered 
of them, of the tribe of Reuben, were forty and six 
thousand and five hundred. 

Of the children of Simeon, their generations, by their 
families, by their fathers’ houses, those that were num- 
bered thereof, according to the number of the names, by 
their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, 
all that were able to go forth to war; those that were 
numbered of them, of the tribe of Simeon, were fifty and 
nine thousand and three hundred. 

Of the children of Gad, their generations, by their 
families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number 
of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that 
were able to go forth to war; those that were numbered 
of them, of the tribe of Gad, were forty and five thousand 
six hundred and fifty. 


20-46. Details of the census, the same formula being repeated 
for each tribe. The peculiar position of Gad in the list is due to 
the association of this tribe with Reuben and Simeon to form the 
second or southern division in the location of the tribes around 
the sanctuary (see ch. ii). Of the totals of the several tribes none 
goes lower than the hundreds except in the case of Gad (verse 25), 
and even there the number stops at the tens (45,650). It has 
often been noted, also, that just six of the tribes exceed the 
average of 50,000, while the other six fall below that figure. 


19 


20 


2I - 


22 


23 


24 


rama be 
190 NUMBERS 1. 26-33. P aeePn 1 
; 3 

26 Of the children of Judah, their generations, by their | 
families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number — 
of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that 

27 were able to go forth to war; those that were numbered 
of them, of the tribe of Judah, were threescore and 
fourteen thousand and six hundred. 

28 Of the children of Issachar, their generations, by their 
families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number 
of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that 

29 were able to go forth to war; those that were numbered 
of them, of the tribe of Issachar, were fifty and four 
thousand and four hundred. 

30 ~©6. Of the children of Zebulun, their generations, by their 
families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number 
of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that 

31 were able to go forth to war; those that were numbered 
of them, of the tribe of Zebulun, were fifty and seven 
thousand and four hundred. 

32 Of the children of Joseph, zamedy, of the children of 
Ephraim, their generations, by their families, by their 
fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, 
from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to 

33 go forth to war; those that were numbered of them, 
of the tribe of Ephraim, were forty thousand and five 
hundred. 


Further, the tribe of Dan, although consisting of only a single 
clan, reaches the high total of 62,700. The gross total of the 
twelve tribes is 603,350 (verse 46, ii. 32; ef. the corresponding 
total of the second census, 601,730, xxvi. 51). The round number 
of 600,000, now found in two J passages (xi. 21; Exod. xii. 37), is 
admitted to be a later insertion based on P’s totals. According to 
modern statistics of vitality, 600,000 males above twenty years of 
age represent a total population of at least two million souls. 

The question must now be faced: Are these figures reliable? 
Did the Hebrews at their exodus from Egypt really number any- 


« 


NUMBERS 1. 3,-41 P 191 


Of the children of Manasseh, their generations, by 
their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the 


number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, 


all that were able to go forth to war; those that were 
numbered of them, of the tribe of Manasseh, were thirty 
and two thousand and two hundred. 

Of the children of Benjamin, their generations, by 
their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the 
number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, 
all that were able to go forth to war; those that were 
numbered of them, of the tribe of Benjamin, were thirty 
and five thousand and four hundred. 


Of the children of Dan, their generations, by their 3 


families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number 
of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that 


were able to go forth to war; those that were numbered 2 


of them, of the tribe of Dan, were threescore and two 
thousand and seven hundred. 

Of the children of Asher, their generations, by their 
families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number 
of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that 
were able to go forth to war; those that were numbered 
of them, of the tribe of Asher, were forty and one 
thousand and five hundred. 





thing approaching to 2,000,000? The answer must be in the 
negative, for the utter impossibility of such a total can be proved 
by various considerations, as Bishop Colenso showed long ago in 
his famous work The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua critically 
examined (cf. Gray, Numbers, 11 ff.). Some of these are the 
following: (1) The size of the land of Goshen is now known 
approximately, ‘about 60 or 80 square miles,’ according to 
Flinders Petrie, who holds that ‘ not more than about 5,000 people 
could be taken out of Goshen or into Sinai’ (Researches in Sinai 
(1906), p. 208). (2) The conditions of life in the Sinaitic peninsula 
have not varied greatly within historic times, and it is extremely 
doubtful if the district between the gulfs of Suez and Akaba was 


3+ 


(SS) 


40 


4! 





192 NUMBERS 1. 42-45. PB 


42 Of the children of Naphtali, their generations, by their 
families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number 
of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that 

43 were able to go forth to war; those that were numbered 
of them, of the tribe of Naphtali, were fifty and three ~ 
thousand and four hundred. 4 

44 These are they that were numbered, which Moses and 
Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, being twelve 

45 men: they were each one for his fathers’ house. So all 
they that were numbered of the children of Israel by 


ever capable of supporting more than its present estimated popu- 
lation of some 6,000, and certainly not more than a fraction of this 
number if encamped for even a few days at any one spot. (3) The 
high totals of this chapter are inconsistent with the statements of 
other Pentateuch passages which represent the Hebrew immi- 
grants as too few in number to occupy effectively the tiny land 
of Canaan; see, for example, Exod. xxiii, 29 f.; Deut. vii. 7, 22 
(cf. Exod. i.15—only two midwives). And, as a matter of history, 
only parts here and there were so occupied in the first stages 
of the conquest (see Judges i).} 

An elaborate but futile attempt has recently been made by the 
scholar named above (Petrie, op. cit. 209 ff.) to reduce P’s numbers 
to more reasonable dimensions by taking the Hebrew word for 
‘thousand’ in the sense of ‘ families’ or tents, the hundreds alone 
representing ‘the total inhabitants of these tents.’ The result is 
a total of 598 tents and 5,550 people. But the high figures of 
this chapter do not stand alone in O.T. literature, and Petrie him- 
self has to have recourse to a different theory in order to explain 
the numbers of the Levites. 

How P obtained the amazing totals of this chapter it is im- 
possible to say. It may be conjectured that they are an adaptation 
and expansion of some genuine census lists of the period of the 





* In fairness to the author of this chapter, too much should not be. 
made of the startling results obtained by a comparison of the number 
of the firstborn males in iii. 43, for the passage iii. 40-43 is from 
a different hand (see below). Thus, according to the statistics of 
vitality in modern nations, 22,273 firstborn males in a male popt- 
lation of say 1,110,000 (of whom 600,000 were over 20 years of age) 
mean an average of 50 sons to a family; or, if taken in another 
way, they mean that only 1 in 16 women of marriageable age were 
mothers. 


NUMBERS 1. 46-51. P 193 


their fathers’ houses, from twenty years old and upward, 


_all that were able to go forth to war in Israel; even all 46 


they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and 
three thousand and five hundred and fifty. 

But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not 
numbered among them. For the Lorp spake unto Moses, 
saying, Only the tribe of Levi thou shalt not number, 
neither shalt thou take the sum of them among the 
children of Israel: but appoint thou the Levites over the 
tabernacle of the testimony, and over all the furniture 
thereof, and over all that belongeth to it: they shall bear 
the tabernacle, and all the furniture thereof; and they 
shall minister unto it, and shall encamp round about the 
tabernacle. And when the tabernacle setteth forward, 
the Levites shall take it down: and when the tabernacle 





monarchy, for it is scarcely credible that he had not some data 
from which to work. But even as reflecting this later period, 
the numbers could only be accepted for the larger tribes, such as 
Judah and Ephraim. Mention may be made of Holzinger’s 
ingenious discovery that the numerical value of the Hebrew 
letters in Béné Yisrael (children of Israel) is precisely 603, which 
he believes to be the origin of the same number of thousands in 
the gross total of the census (cf. Bennett’s note on Gen. xiv. 14 
in Cent. Bible—Abraham’s trained men number 318, the numerical 
value of the letters of Eliezer). 


47-54 contain a belated instruction to exclude the Levites 
from the census, which is already um fait accompli, with a sum- 
mary of their duties and their place in the camp, which, on the 
other hand, anticipates chs. iii-iv. Verse 47 is the natural close 
of the preceding narrative; what follows is from a later hand 
(P’) in explanation thereof. Our translators seek to remove the 
difficulty by rendering, in defiance of Hebrew syntax: ‘for the 
Lorp spake’ or ‘had spoken’ (A.V.), in place of ‘and Yahweh 
spake.” 

50. the tabernacle of the testimony: lit. ‘the dwelling’ of 
the testimony (also verse 53, x. 11, Exod. xxxviii. 21), the latter 
a name, peculiar to P, for the ark (e.g. xvii. 4, 10), as explained 
in the note on Ley. xvi. 12f. The duties of the Levites are more 
fully given in chs, iii and iv, 


°o 


47 
48 
49 


50 


or 
Lal 


% eas ay 


194 NUMBERS 1. 52—2. 1. P 


is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the 
52 stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. And 
the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man 
by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, 
53 according to their hosts. But the Levites shall pitch 
round about the tabernacle of the testimony, that there 
be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of 
Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the 
54 tabernacle of the testimony. Thus did the children of 
Israel ; according to all that the Lorp commanded 
Moses, so did they. 
2, And the Lorp spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, 





51. the stranger: here practically ‘the layman’ as opposed 
to both priests and Levites, see on Lev. xxii. 10. 

53. the Levites—the priests are here overlooked, see iii. 38— 
are to form a protecting cordon round the sanctuary, lest any 
of the unsanctified laity might incautiously approach the holy 
place, and fall a victim to the death-dealing ‘wrath’ of a holy God 
(see xvi. 46). Just as the sanctuary was ‘taboo’ for the layman 
without due preparation (Exod. xix. to, 14 f.), so its sacred vessels 
and altars were ‘taboo’ for the Levites (iv. 15, 20, xviii. 3). 

shall keep the charge of the tabernacle: originally a 
military term for keeping guard (2 Kings xi. 5 f.), ‘ to keep the 
charge’ has become in P a comprehensive technical term for per- 
forming the multifarious services connected with the sanctuary 
(so often in Numbers, iii. 7, 28, 32, 38, xviii. 3-5, &c.). 


Ch. ii is entirely occupied with the Divine instructions to 
Moses (for ‘ Aaron’ of verse 1 see on i. 2 and ef. ii. 34) regarding 
the arrangement of the camp. As we study it, let us forget the 
unreality of the numbers and the impossibility of finding, among 
the wadies of Sinai, the square miles of level ground required for 
the tents of two or three millions of human beings with ‘the flocks 
and the herds?’ (xi. 22), This done, let us try to grasp the 
religious ideas which filled the mind of the priestly writer as he 
sketched the plan for his city of God in the wilderness. 

Underlying all is the central fact of God’s presence in the midst 
of His people. Inseparable from this is the idea of worship, for 


' Herds of large cattle are, and were, an impossibility in the 
peninsula. 


NUMBERS 2,2, 3. P 195 


saying, The children of Israel shall pitch every man by 2 
his own standard, with the ensigns of their fathers’ houses : 
over against the tent of meeting shall they pitch round 
about. And those that pitch on the east side toward-the 3 
sunrising shall be they of the standard of the camp of 
Judah, according to their hosts: and the prince of the 
children of Judah shall be Nahshon the son of Ammin- 


the author finds the highest expression of life in the exercise of 
public worship, by which the theocratic community maintains 
unbroken its relation to God. But Yahweh is a God of ineffable 
and almost unapproachable holiness, a truth which needs to be 
impressed even upon the people of the covenant. This is done by 
arranging that the tents of the secular tribes shall not be pitched 
in the immediate proximity of the Divine Dwelling—here P is 
following in the footsteps of Ezekiel—but shall be separated from 
it by a safety zone occupied by the tents of the consecrated priests 
and Levites. 

Finally, in the balance and symmetry which pervades the 
arrangement of the camp, we may detect, as in the parallel case 
of the Tabernacle, an attempt to symbolize the perfection and 
harmony of the Divine character. Thus the chapter before us, 
valueless to us as an historical record, has a value of its own as 
an exposition of spiritual truths of the first importance. 

2. A summary command, of which the rest of the chapter gives 
the more precise details. It has hitherto been usual to distinguish 
between the standards and the ensigns by taking the former as 
the military standards of the larger units, the clans and tribes, 
and the latter as the standards of the septs or ‘fathers’ houses.’ 
In the ancient versions, however, the word rendered standard 
(degel) is understood of a military ‘ company’ (so Gray, Numbers). 
This meaning is confirmed by the recently discovered Jewish 
papyri of Elephantine, in which degel repeatedly occurs in the 
sense of a division, cadre, or the like. Here, therefore, render 
‘by his own division,’ the whole army of 600,000 being divided 
into four divisions or army corps, each with its own ‘ camp.’ 


3-9. The place of honour, on the east of the Tabernacle, is 
occupied by the ‘camp of Judah,’ comprising the tribe of Judah 
flanked by the tribes of Issachar and Zebulun. The whole 
encampment is to be pictured as forming a quadrilateral lying 
‘foursquare’ like Ezekiel’s court (Ezek. x]. 47), and the city of God 
of a later vision (Rev. xxi. 16), The centre, as we have seen, is 
occupied by the Tabernacle and itscourt. Nearest to the sanctuary, 


O 2 


196: NUMBERS 2, 4-11. P 


4adab. And his host, and those that were numbered of 
them, were threescore and fourteen thousand and six 

5 hundred. And those that pitch next unto him shall be 
the tribe of Issachar: and the prince of the children of 

6 Issachar shall be Nethanel the son of Zuar: and his host, 
and those that were numbered thereof, were fifty and 

» four thousand and four hundred: avd the tribe of Zebu- 
lun: and the prince of the children of Zebulun shall be 

s Eliab the son of Helon: and his host, and those that 
were numbered thereof, were fifty and seven thousand 

g and four hundred. All that were numbered of the camp 
of Judah were an hundred thousand and fourscore thou- 
sand and six thousand and four hundred, according to 
their hosts. They shall set forth first. 

1o Onthe south side shall be the standard of the camp of 
Reuben according to their hosts: and the prince of the 
children of Reuben shall be Elizur the son of Shedeur. 

11 And his host, and those that were numbered thereof, 





and surrounding it on all four sides as a protecting cordon, are the 
tents of the priests and Levites, those of the former on the 
eastern side, opposite the entrance to the Tabernacle (iii. 38), 
those of the Kohathites, Gershonites, and Merarites on the south, 
west, and north of the Tabernacle respectively (iii. 23, 20, 35). 
Beyond these, and enclosing them, stretch the tents of the 
twelve secular tribes arranged in the four ‘divisions’ above 
mentioned. Each division bears the name of its leading tribe, 
Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, Dan, proceeding from east to north as 
above. In this order, also, the divisions are to take their places 
in the line of march (verses 9, 16, 24, 31). 

4. This verse and the fifteen verses corresponding (6, 8, 9%, 
II, 13, 15, &c.), giving the census results of ch. i, must be later - 
insertions, as one can scarcely believe that the author of P# ‘has 
really forgotten that he is professedly reporting a Divine in- 
struction to Moses.’ 

10-16. The next most honourable position, on the south of the 
Tabernacle, is assigned to the division of ‘the camp of Reuben.’ 
With Reuben are associated Simeon and, in place of Levi, Gad, 
the eldest son of Leah’s handmaid. 


oa 


NUMBERS 2. 12-22. P 197 


were forty and six thousand and five hundred. And 12 
those that pitch next unto him shall be the tribe of 
Simeon: and the prince of the children of Simeon shall 
be Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai: and his host, and 13 
those that were numbered of them, were fifty and nine 
thousand and three hundred: and the tribe of Gad: and 14 
the prince of the children of Gad shall be Eliasaph the 
son of * Reuel: and his host, and those that were num- 15 
bered of them, were forty and five thousand and six 
hundred and fifty. All that were numbered of the camp 16 
of Reuben were an hundred thousand and fifty and one 
thousand and four hundred and fifty, according to their 
hosts. And they shall set forth second. 

Then the tent of meeting shall set forward, with the 17 
camp of the Levites in the midst of the camps: as they 
encamp, so shall they set forward, every man in his place, 
by their standards. 

On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of 18 
Ephraim according to their hosts: and the prince of the 
children of Ephraim shall be Elishama the son of 
Ammihud. And his host, and those that were num- 19 
bered of them, were forty thousand and five hundred. 
And next unto him shall be the tribe of Manasseh: and 20 
the prince of the children of Manasseh shall be Gamaliel 
the son of Pedahzur: and his host, and those that were 21 
numbered of them, were thirty and two thousand and 
two hundred : and the tribe of Benjamin: and the prince 22 
of the children of Benjamin shall be Abidan the son of 

; 2 Tn ch. i. 14, Deuel. 





17. An irrelevant and inaccurate gloss (see x. 17-21). 

18-24. The west side is occupied by ‘the camp of Ephraim,’ 
who here, as elsewhere, takes precedence of his elder brother 
Manasseh (Gen. xlviii. 13 ff.) With these is naturally associated 
the tribe of Benjamin, thus completing the descendants of Rachel. 


198 NUMBERS 2. 23-34. BP 


23 Gideoni: and his host, and those that were suabered 
of them, were thirty and five thousand and four hundred. 

24 All that were numbered of the camp of Ephraim were an 

- hundred thousand and eight thousand and an hundred, 
according to their hosts. And they shall set forth third. 

25 On the north side shall be the standard of the camp 
of Dan according to their hosts: and the prince of the 
children of Dan shall be Ahiezer the son of Ammishad- 

26 dai’ And his host, and those that were numbered of 
them, were threescore and two thousand and seyen 

»7 hundred. And those that pitch next unto him shall be 
the tribe of Asher: and the prince of the children of 

28 Asher shall be Pagiel the son of Ochran: and his host, 
and those that were numbered of them, Were forty and 

29 one thousand and five hundred: and the tribe of Naph- 
tali: and the prince of the children of Naphtali shall be 

jo Ahira the son of Enan: and his host, and those that 
were numbered of them, were fifty and three thousand 

31 and four hundred. All that were numbered of the camp 
of Dan were an hundred thousand and fifty and seven 
thousand and six hundred. They shall set forth hind- 
most by their standards. 

32 These are they that were numbered of the children of 
Israel by their fathers’ houses: all that were numbered 
of the camps according to their hosts were six hundred 
thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. 

33 But the Levites were not numbered among the children 

34 of Israel; as the Lorp commanded Moses. Thus did 
the children of Israel; according to all that the Lorp 
commanded Moses, so they pitched by their standards, 





25-31. The ‘camp of Dan’ on the north of the Tabernacle 
comprises the tribes descended from Jaceb’s concubines, with the 
exception of Gad already allocated. : 


NUMBERS 3.1. P 199 


and so they set forward, every one by their families, 
according to their fathers’ houses. x 
Now these are the generations of Aaron and Moses in 3 


(6) tii-iv. The Levites and their duties. 

This important subject is also dealt with in viii. 5-26 and 
Xviii. 1-7. The literary relation of the three sections is difficult 
to determine. On the one hand, xviii. 1-7 is unquestionably the 
natural sequel to the story of Korah’s rebellion as told by P® 
(see the introductory note to ch. xvi), and reads as if the appoint- 
ment of ‘the tribe of Levi’ (xviii. 2) for the service of the 
sanctuary was being mentioned for the first time. In this case 
iii. 5-to would have to be regarded as an anticipaticn of xviii. I ff. 
by a later hand (so Baentsch, Moore, &c.). On the whole, how- 
ever, it is more probable on various grounds that P£ introduced 
the appointment of the Levites in close connexion with the 
nomination (Exod. xxix) and consecration (Lev. viii-x)? of Aaron 
and his sons to the priesthood. If this be so, the rebellion of 
Korah has been made the occasion of reinforcing the Divine choice 
of Levi, and of defining anew the relation between the two orders 
of the hierarchy (xviii. 4 ff.). 

In any case it is only in parts of ch. iii that P® is represented. 
Ch. iv is regarded by most critics as secondary (P%) on the 
ground of certain peculiarities of phraseology (see C-H., Hex., 
vol. ii, #7 loc.), and as being little more than a diffuse expansion 
of parts of ch. iii, For the different point of view in ili. 5-10 
compared with 11-13, pointing to a difference of source, see the 
notes below. 

The existence of the two orders, priests and Levites, from the 
very foundation of the theocracy is one of the fundamental 
assumptions of the priestly school of Jewish historians. Modern 
historical criticism, however, has shown conclusively that there 
is no certain trace of such a dualism in the history of Israel until 
the post-exilic period. Originally the offering of sacrifice, the 
chief of the later priestly prerogatives, was not confined to any 
caste, although even as early as the days of the Judges, the 
members of the old secular tribe of Levi (see Gen. xlix. 7) were 
believed to be specially qualified for the priestly office, in virtue 
probably of their kinship with Moses (Judges xvii. 7-13, xviii. 30, 
R.V.). Eventually, however, the members of the various priest- 
hoods became a sacred caste, claiming descent from Levi. Hence 
in Deuteronomy, ‘ the priests, the Levites,’ is the standing designa- 





* It will be remembered that there is almost nothing of P? in the rest 
of Leviticus. 


200 NUMBERS 3. 2-7. PB 


the day that the Lorp spake with Moses in mount Sinai. 
2 And these are the names of the sons of Aaron ; ‘Nadab 


3 the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. These 


are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests which 
were anointed, whom he consecrated to minister in the 

4 priest’s office. And Nadab and Abihu died before the 
Lorp, when they offered strange fire before the Lorn, 
in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children: 
and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest’s office 
in the presence of Aaron their father 

z And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Bring the 
tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, 

7 that they may minister unto him. And they shall keep 


tion of those who were priests by office and Levites by reputed 
descent. 

According to the modern view, the first to make a cleavage 
within the ranks of the Levitical priests was Ezekiel, who declared 
that the priests of the local sanctuaries had forfeited their right to 
be regarded as legitimate priests of Yahweh... As a punishment 
for their unfaithfulness they were henceforth to be excluded from 
the altar, and to be degraded to the position of servants of the 
Zadokite priesthood at Jerusalem (Ezek. xliv. 10-16, see Cent. 
Bible, in loc.). The distinction thus created between priests and 
‘ Levites’ who are not priests is carried back by P to the days of 
Moses, with this all-important difference, however, that the idea 
of degradation has entirely disappeared. On the contrary, the 
appointment of the Levites is represented by the priestly writers 
as a gracious act on the part of Yahweh, and their position as one 
of privilege and honour, inferior only to that of the priests (see 
further the arts. ‘Levi’ in the Bible Dicts., and especially 
Wellhausen’s Prolegomena, ch. iv, and Baudissin’s art. ‘ Priests 
and Levites’ in Hastings’s DB. iv, also the full bibliography in 
W. R. Harper, The Priestly Element in the O.T., pp. 70 f., 282 f.). 

1-4. The ‘generations,’ i.e. the descendants, of Aaron, cf. 
Exod. vi. 2, also Lev. x. 1, with note. Delete ‘and Moses’ in 
verse I—a slip of a copyist accustomed to the association of 
the two brothers. The verses are editorial (R). 

5-8. Bring the tribe of Levi near, &c. The tribe of Levi, 
necessarily as represented by the heads of the subdivisions, is to 
be formally presented ‘unto Aaron and to his sons’ as a gift on 


d 
—e 


NUMBERS 3. 8-13. P 201 


his charge, and the charge of the whole congregation 
before the tent of meeting, to do the service of the 


tabernacle. And they shall keep all the furniture of the 8 


tent of meeting, and the charge of the children of Israel, 


to do the service of the tabernacle. And thou shalt 9 


give the Levites unto Aaron and to his sons: they are 
4wholly given unto him ' on the behalf of the children 
of Israel. And thou shalt ¢appoint Aaron and his sons, 
and they shall keep their priesthood: and the stranger 
that cometh nigh shall be put to death. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, And I, 
behold, I have taken the Levites from among the chil- 
dren of Israel instead of all the firstborn that openeth 
the womb among the children of Israel ; and the Levites 
shall be mine: for all the firstborn are mine; on the 
day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I 
hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man 
and beast: mine they shall be; I am the Lorn. 


2 Heb. given, given. > Or, from © Or, number 


the part of (cf. verse 9, marg.) the whole community for the 
subordinate duties of the sanctuary, ‘ the service of the tabernacle’ 
(verse 7). The source may be assumed to be P® (see above), since 
the same point of view—the Levites as a gift—is found in xviii. 1-7, 
where, however, the idea is more prominent that the gift is made 
to Yahweh, by whom it is handed over to the priests (xviii. 6). 

10. the stranger here is every one, including the Levites, 
who is not a priest ; contrast i. 51. 

11-13. Here a different point of view reveals itself. The 
Levites are represented as the substitutes of the firstborn males 
(see verse 43) of the other tribes, whom Yahweh claims as his 
own (Exod. xxii. 29, on which see Bennett's note in Cent. Bible). 
. The original continuation is found in verses 40-51, all probably 
P*. This explanation of the origin of the Levitical caste seems 
the product of later reflection, and, as Baentsch points out 
(Handkommentar, in loc.),is scarcely consistent with the repeated 
demand of P that the firstborn must be redeemed, ‘ for if Yahweh 
takes to Himself the Levites as substitutes for the firstborn, the 
latter ought by rights to go free.’ 


aM So Ce 
202 NUMBERS 3. 14-25. P 


14 And the Lorp spake unto Moses in the wilderness 
15 of Sinai, saying, Number the children of Levi by their 
fathers’ houses, by their families: every male from a 
16 month old and upward shalt thou number them. And 
Moses numbered them according to the word of the 
17 Lorp, as he was commanded. And these were the 
sons of Levi by their names; Gershon, and Kohath, 
18 and Merari. And these are the names of the sons of 
19 Gershon by their families ; Libni and Shimei. And the 
sons of Kohath by their families; Amram, and Izhar, 
20 Hebron, and Uzziel. And the sons of Merari by their 
families; Mahli and Mushi. ‘These are the families of 
the Levites according to their fathers’ houses. 
21 Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites, and the 
family of the Shimeites: these are the families of the 
22 Gershonites. Those that were numbered of them, 
according to the number of all the males, from a month 
old and upward, even those that were numbered of 
23 them were seven thousand and five hundred. The 
families of the Gershonites shall pitch behind the taber- 
24 nacle westward. And the prince of the fathers’ house 
of the Gershonites shall be Eliasaph the son of Lael. 
25 And the charge of the sons of Gershon in the tent of 





14-39. Moses is commanded to take a census of the male 
members of the tribe of Levi from a month old and upwards. 
This is done in the order of the three divisions of the tribe, the 
Gershonites, Kohathites, and Merarites, so named from their 
respective progenitors, the sons of Levi. Into the census scheme 
is now worked a summary statement of the duties of each division 
in respect of the Tabernacle and its equipment, together with an 
indication of the place which each division is to occupy in the ° 
camp, for which see the introductory note to ch. ii. 


21-26. The census of the Gershonites, 7,500, their location on 
the west of the Tabernacle, and specification of their ‘charge in 
the tent of meeting.’ 

25f. Their ‘charge’ consisted of the curtains and coverings of 


NUMBERS 3. 26-29. P 203 


‘meeting shall be the tabernacle, and the Tent, the 
covering thereof, and the screen for the door of the 
tent of meeting, and the hangings of the court, and 
the screen for the door of the court, which is by the 
tabernacle, and by the altar round about, 4nd the cords 
of it for all the service thereof. 

And of Kohath was the family of the Amramites, 
and the family of the Izharites, and the family of the 
Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzielites: these are 
the families of the Kohathites. According to the 
number of all the males, from a month old and upward, 
there were eight thousand and six hundred, keeping the 
charge of the sanctuary. The families of the sons of 
Kohath shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle south- 





the Tabernacle and the screen or portiére forming the door 
thereof, together with the hangings enclosing the court and the 
portiére at the entrance of the latter, as more fully detailed in 
iv. 24 ff. 

the tabernacle, and the Tent, the covering thereof: render, 
with the versions : ‘the Dwelling, and the Tent, and the covering 
thereof.’ The first here denotes the two sets of rich tapestry curtains 
which formed ‘the Dwelling’ of Yahweh in the strict sense; the 
Tent is two sets of goats’-hair curtains which were spread over 
those of the Dwelling; the covering comprises the two sets of 
outer coverings, the one of rams’ skins, the other made from the 
skins of, probably, the dugong (see oniv. 6). For the Tabernacle 
and its furniture see, besides the commentaries on Exodus xxv ff., 
the present writer’s art. in Hastings’s DB. iv. (more briefly in the 
same editor’s one-volume dictionary), and M‘Neile, Zhe Book of 
Exodus, pp. |xxiii-xcii. 

27-32. The census of the Kohathites, 8,600 (reaily 8,300), their 
location on the south of the Tabernacle, and their charge. Although 
second in order according to the birth of their eponym ancestor, 
the ‘sons of Kohath”’ occupy the place of highest honour (cf. iv. 
4 ff.) in the camp after the priests (see verse 38), in virtue of the 
more honourable charge confided = them. 

28. six hundred: for ‘six’ (wp) read * Hees ; Cubes, of 
which the middle letter has been inadvertently dropped), see on 
verse 39. The word rendered ‘those that were numbered of 
them’ has also fallen out at the head of this verse (cf, 22, 34). 


564 NUMBERS 3.30-36. Bo . 


3o ward. And the prince of the fathers’ house of the“ 
families of the Kohathites shall be Elizaphan the son of 
31 Uzziel. And their charge shall be the ark, and the table, 
and the candlestick, and the altars, and the vessels of the 
sanctuary wherewith they minister, and the screen, and 
32 all the service thereof. And Eleazar the son of Aaron 
the priest shall be prince of the princes of the Levites, 
and have the oversight of them that keep the charge of 
the sanctuary. 
33 Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites, and the 
family of the Mushites: these are the families of Merari. 
34 And those that were numbered of them, according to 
the number of all the males, from a month old and 
35 upward, were six thousand and two hundred. And the 
prince of the fathers’ house of the families of Merari 
was Zuriel the son of Abihail: they shall pitch on the 
36 side of the tabernacle northward. And *the appointed 
charge of the sons of Merari shall be the boards of the 
tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, 


® Heb. the office of the charge. 


31. The Kohathites had charge of the whole contents of the 
Dwelling and of the altar of burnt-offering. The brazen laver 
(Exod. xxx. 18, xxxv. 16) has been overlooked both here and in 
ch. iv. For the vessels of the sanctuary see iv. 7, 9, 14. 

and the screen. Read, as in iv. 5, ‘ the veil of the screen,” 
the artistic hanging separating ‘the holy of holies’ from ‘the holy 
place’ (Exod. xxyi, 31-33). 


33-37. The census of the Merarites, 6,200, their location on the 
north of the Tabernacle, and their charge. 

36. the boards of the tabernacle : the Hebrew word of which 
‘boards’ is the traditional rendering occurs only once outside the 
Tabernacle passages, viz. Ezek. xxvii. 6, where it seems to signify 
‘panels’ (of ivory inlaid in box-wood). In the article cited above 
(DB. iv. 659 f.) it is shown that in the construction of the 
Tabernacle it probably denotes a light wooden frame, the whole 
forming an open framework over which the curtains were 
suspended (for illustration see ibid, 660, also Bennett’s Exodus, 


NUMBERS 3. 37-43. P 205 


and the sockets thereof, and all the instruments thereof, 
and all the service thereof; and the pillars of the court 37 
round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their 
cords. And those that pitch before the tabernacle east- 38 
ward, before the tent of meeting toward the sunrising, 
shall be Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the 
charge of the sanctuary *for the charge of the children 
of Israel; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be 
put to death. All that were numbered of the Levites, 39 
which Moses and Aaron numbered at the command- 
ment of the Lorp, by their families, all the males from 
a month old and upward, were twenty and two thousand. 
And the Lorp said unto Moses, Number all the first- 40 
born males of the children of Israel from a month old 
and upward, and take the number of their names. And 41 
thou shalt take the Levites for me (I am the Lorp) 
instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel ; 
and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstlings 
among the cattle of the children of Israel. And Moses 42 
numbered, as the Lorp commanded him, all the first- 
born among the children of Israel. And all the firstborn 43 
males according to the number of names, from a month 
old and upward, of those that were numbered of them, 


2 Or, even 





p. 211, and M°Neile, of. cit. lxxiv). For the instruments see 
on iv. 32. 

39. The grand total as here given is 22,000, while the sum of 
the separate totals of the divisions will be found to be 22,300. 
The simplest explanation of the discrepancy, and that usually 
accepted, is to assume that, by a clerical error, the total of the 
Kohathites has now been increased by 300 (see on verse 28). 
The numbers in this chapter are open to the same criticism as 
those of the chapters preceding (pp. too ff.). 


40-51. The rest of this chapter is closely connected with verses 
Tr-13 (P*), and contains directions for the working out of the 


eet ak 
206 NUMBERS 3. 44-47. PB 


were twenty and two thousand two hundred and thre 
score and thirteen. By vi 


‘6 And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, ‘Take the 
5 Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children 
of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their — 
cattle: and the Levites shall be mine; I am the Lorp. 

46 And for *the redemption of the two hundred and three- 
score and thirteen of the firstborn of the children of 
Israel, which are over and above the number of the 

47 Levites, thou shalt take five shekels apiece by the poll; 
after the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take them 

* Or, those that are to be redeemed, the &c. 








principle of substitution there laid down. The first step is 
a census of the firstborn males of the secular tribes of a month 
old and upwards, giving a total of 22,273. Since the Levites 
numbered only 22,000, no substitutes were available for the 
remaining 273. These accordingly had to be ‘redeemed’ by 
a payment of ‘five shekels apiece’ (verse 47); the whole sum 
thus realized was paid over by Moses to the priests. How the 
number 22,273 was reached, only about 1 in 50 of the male popu- 
lation (!), must remain the secret of the writer. The meaning of 
his curious extension of the substitutionary principle to the cattle 
(verses 41, 45) is equally obscure. In short, we have here as 
elsewhere (see, for example, ch. xxxv) a specimen of legal 
theorizing based on older legislative material; in this case the 
basis is supplied by xviii. 15 ff. (P®). ; 

46. for the redemption: better, ‘as regards the redemption- 
price,’ or ‘ransom,’ as in the fuller expression of verses 49, 51. 
The marginal alternative is less probable. 

4'7. after the shekel of the sanctuary: see note on Lev. v. 15. 


The only substantial addition to the foregoing supplied by the 
long and late ch. iv is the result of a fourth census, which is 
taken for the purpose of ascertaining the number of Levites 
qualified for service. It is remarkable that the O.T. contains no 
fewer than three different statements of the age at which the 
Levites entered upon their duties, and still more remarkable that 
two of these should appear almost side by side in the same book 
with no attempt at an explanation. In this chapter the age is 30, 
in viii, 23-26 it is 25, and in Chronicles it is 20 (1 Chr, xxiii. 24, 
27, &e.). ‘The simplest way of accounting for the differences 
would be to assume that they correspond to actual differences in 


NUMBERS 3. 48—4. 5. P 207 


(the shekel is twenty gerahs): and thou shalt give the 48 
money wherewith the odd number of them is redeemed 
unto Aaron and to his sons. And Moses took the 49 
redemption-money from them that were over and above 
them that were redeemed by the Levites: from the first- 50 
born of the children of Israel took he the money; a’ 
thousand three hundred and threescore and five shekeds, 
after the shekel of the sanctuary: and Moses gave *the sr 
redemption-money unto Aaron and to his sons, according 
to the word of the Lorp, as the Lorp commanded 


Moses. 
And the Lorp spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, 4 


saying, Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among 2 
the sons of Levi, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, 
from thirty years old and upward even until fifty years 3 
old, all that enter upon the Pservice, to do the work 
in the tent of meeting. This is the ¢service of the sons 4 
of Kohath in the tent of meeting, adout the most holy 
things: when the camp setteth forward, Aaron shall go s 
in, and his sons, and they shall take down the veil ot the 


® Or, the money of them that were redeemed ? Heb. warfare, 
or, host (and so in vv. 35, 39, 43). ° Or, work 





the age of service at the different periods to which the several 
references belong’ (Gray, Numbers, p. 32, where the problem is 
more fully discussed). The duties of the Levites here specified 
have reference, as in ch. iii, only to the transport of the 
Tabernacle on the march, not to their regular service at the 
sanctuary. 


1-16. The transport duties of the Kohathites (cf. iii. gr f.). 

3. all that enter upon the service: note the margin here, and 
see Gray’s note on the word for ‘service’ (sabda’), of. cit., in loc. ; 
ef, verse 23 and margins in both cases. 

5 ff. The Levites are forbidden, on pain of death (verse 15, cf. 
2 Sam. vi. 6f.), to touch, or even (verse 20) to look upon, any of 
the sacred objects within the Tabernacle. These must be handled 
and packed entirely by the priests, beginning with the most 
Sacrosanct object of all, the sacred ark. 


eS oe 


208 NUMBERS 4, 6-11. PB 


6-screen, and cover the ark of the testimony with it: and 
shall put thereon a covering of sealskin, and shall spread 
over it a cloth all of blue, and shall put in the staves 

7 thereof. And upon the table of shewbread they shall 
spread a cloth of blue, and put thereon the dishes, and 
the spoons, and the bowls, and the cups to pour out 

8 withal: and the continual bread shall be thereon: and 
they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, and cover 
the same with a covering of sealskin, and shall put in the 

9 staves thereof. And they shall take a cloth of blue, and 
cover the candlestick of the light, and its lamps, and its 
tongs, and its snuffdishes, and all the oil vessels thereof, 
10 wherewith they minister unto it: and they shall put it 
and all the vessels thereof within a covering of sealskin, 
11 and shall put it upon * the frame. And upon the golden 

* Or, a bar 


6. a covering of sealskin: Hebr. alash-skin, probably the 
skin of the dugong or sea-cow, of which the Bedouin of Sinai 
make sandals at the present day (cf. Ezek. xvi. to, shoes of 
tahash-skin). It has also been suggested that fafash is a loan- 
word from Egyptian, meaning a special kind of leather. 

and shall put in the staves thereof. This seems to imply 
that the staves had previously been removed, a breach of the 
express command of P£ in Exod. xxvi. 15. It is difficult, more- 
over, to see how the staves—or rather, as the weight demands, 
the ‘ poles’—could be placed in the rings after the ark had been 
packed in three coverings. Or does the writer forget the existence 
of the rings, and think of the poles as passed under the cords with 

_ which the packages were tied up? Cf. note on verse To. 

7. the table of shewbread: render literally, ‘the table of the 
Presence,’ i.e. of Yahweh. The continual bread is the shew- 
bread, or rather ‘the Presence-bread* (Exod. xxv. 30, R.V. 

- Marg.), and is so named, but here only, with reference to the 
commands of Exod., /oc. cit., and Lev. xxiv. 8 (see notes, p. 159 f.). 

10. the frame: margin ‘a bar’ (so A.V. text), the usual 
meaning of the word (m6f). If the articles enumerated are to 
be thought of as carried loose, a ‘frame’ or platform is indispen- 
sable for their transport. But one receives the impression, as 
already suggested, that the author intends the sacred vessels to 
be not only wrapped but roped in their coverings for greater 


NUMBERS 4. 12-18. P 209 


altar they shall spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with 
a covering ot sealskin, and shall put in the staves thereof: 
and they shall take all the vessels of ministry, wherewith 
they minister in the sanctuary, and put them in a cloth 
of blue, and cover them with a covering of sealskin, and 
shall put them on the frame. And they shall take away 
the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth 
thereon: and they shall put upon it all the vessels 
thereof, wherewith they minister about it, the firepans, 
the fleshhooks, and the shovels, and the basons, all the 
vessels of the altar; and they shall spread upon it a 
_covering of sealskin, and put in the staves thereof. And 
when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering 
the sanctuary, and all the furniture of the sanctuary, as 
the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath 
shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch the 
*sanctuary, lest they die. These things are the burden 
of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting. And the 
charge of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be the 
oil for the light, and the sweet incense, and the continual 
meal offering, and the anointing oil, the charge of all the 
tabernacle, and of all that therein is, the sanctuary, and 
the furniture thereof. 
And the Lorp spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, 
saying, Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the 
* Or, holy things 


security, in which case the s6/ will be the pole from which the 
package is to be suspended; cf. xiii. 23, ‘by means of a pole 
(R.V. upon a staff, m6?) between two.’ 

11. the golden altar: in Lev. iv. 7 termed ‘ the altar of sweet 
incense’ (see note there), to be distinguished from ‘the altar’ 
par excellence of verse 13, which is the altar of burnt-offering. 

17-20. An amplification by a later hand of the command of 15°, 
emphasizing the fact that the contents of the Tabernacle can be 
handled, or even seen, only by the priests. The penalty for the 
breach of this taboo is death. 


i 


{2 


17 
18 


aS a a 
210 _ NUMBERS 4. 19-28. RP ae Soak 


19 Kohathites from among the Levites: but thus do unto 
them, that they may live, and not die, when they 
approach unto the most holy things: Aaron and his 
sons shall go in, and appoint them every oné to his 

20 service and to his burden: but they shall not go in to 

, See the “sanctuary even for a moment, lest they die. 

, And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Take the 

~ sum of the sons of Gershon also, by their fathers’ houses, 

23 by their families ; from thirty years old and upward until 

fifty years old shalt thou number them ; all that enter in 
to » wait upon the service, to do the work in the tent of 
24 meeting. This is the service of the families of the 
25 Gershonites, in serving and in bearing burdens: they 
shall bear the curtains of the tabernacle, and the tent 
of meeting, its covering, and the covering of sealskin 
that is above upon it, and the screen for the door of the 
26 tent of meeting; and the hangings of the court, and 
the screen for the door of the gate of the court, which is 
by the tabernacle and by the altar round about, and their 
cords, and all the instruments of their service, and what- 
soever shall be done with them, therein shall they serve. 
27 At the commandnient of Aaron and his sons shall be all 
the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their 
burden, and in all their service: and ye shall appoint 

28 unto them in charge all their burden. This is the service 

of the families of the sons of the Gershonites in the tent 
of meeting: and their charge shall be under the hand of 
Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. 


® Or, holy things > Heb, war the warfare. 


t tb 





21-28. The transport duties of the Gershonites (cf, iii. 25 f£). 

27. The last clause should be read as in verse g2 (80 LXX): 
‘and ye shall appoint unto them by name all that is committed 
to them to carry.’ 


- NUMBERS 4. 29-37. P 2I1 


As for the sons of Merari, thou shalt number them by 29 
their families, by their fathers’ houses; from thirty years 30 
old and upward even unto fifty years old shalt thou 
number them, every one that entereth upon the service, 
to do the work of the tent of meeting. And this is the 3: 
charge of their burden, according to all their service in 
the tent of meeting; the boards of the’ tabernacle, and 
the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and the sockets 
' thereof; and the pillars of the court round about, and 32 
their sockets, and their pins, and their cords, with all 
their instruments, and with all their service: and by 
name ye shall ®appoint the instruments of the charge of 
their burden. This is the service of the families of the 33 
sons of Merari, according to all their service, in the tent 
of meeting, under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron 
the priest. 

And Moses and Aaron and the princes of the congre- 34 
gation numbered the sons of the Kohathites by their 
families, and by their fathers’ houses, from thirty years 35 
old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one that 
entered upon the service, for work in the tent of meeting: 
and those that were numbered of them by their families 36 
were two thousand seven hundred and fifty. These are 37 
they that were numbered of the families of the Kohath- 
ites, all that did serve in the tent of meeting, whom 


® Or, number 





29-33. The transport duties of the Merarites (cf. iii. 36 f.). 

31. For the boards, rather ‘the frames,’ see note on iii. 36. 

32. with all their instruments: beiter ‘all their accessories’ 
(Gray), including not only the hooks (Exod. xxvi. 32, xxvii. Io, 
17) and rings for the hangings, but also the mallets, &c., required 
for the erection of the sanctuary. 


34-49. The totals of the census, first of the divisions separately 
—Kohathites 2,750, Gershonites 2,630, Merarites 3,200 -and then 


UA 


212 NUMBERS 4. 38-48. PB 


Moses and Aaron numbered according to the ommpees- 
ment of the Lorp by the hand of Moses. st 
38 And those that were numbered of the sons of Ctra 
39 by their families, and by their fathers’ houses, from thirty 
years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one 
that entered upon the service, for work in the tent of 
4o meeting, even those that were numbered of them, by 
their families, by their fathers’ houses, were two thousand 
41 and six hundred and thirty. These are they that were 
numbered of the families of the sons of Gershon, all that 
did serve in the tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron 
numbered according to the commandment of the Lorp. 
42 And those that were numbered of the families of the 
sons of Merari, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, 
43 from thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years 
old, every one that entered upon the service, for work in 
44 the tent of meeting, even those that were numbered of 
them by their families, were three thousand and two 
45 hundred. These are they that were numbered of the 
families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron 
numbered according to the commandment of the Lorp — 
by the hand of Moses. 
46 All those that were numbered of the Tavitel whom 
Moses and Aaron and the princes of Israel numbered, 
47 by their families, and by their fathers’ houses, from thirty 
years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one 
that entered in to do the work of service, and the work of 
48 bearing burdens in the tent of meeting, even those that 
were numbered of them, were eight thousand and five 





of the whole tribe 8,580, all entered with the repetition and 
diffuseness characteristic of the later priestly writers (ef, ch. vil). 
For the corrupt text of the last verse, see Gray, m foc. R.V 

although ‘not a translation’ —— ), gives a sufficient approxi- 
mation, ; 


NUMBERS 4. 49—5. 7. P 213 


hundred and fourscore. According to the commandment 49 
of the Lorp they were numbered by the hand of Moses, 
every one according to his service, and ® according to his 
burden: thus were they numbered of him, as the LorD 
commanded Moses, 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Command 5 2 
the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp 
every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whoso- 
ever is unclean by the dead: both male and female shall 3 
ye put out, without the camp shall ye put them; that 
they defile not their camp, in the midst whereof I dwell. 
And the children of Israel did so, and put them out 4 
without the camp: as the Lorp spake unto Moses, so 
did the children of Israel. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 5, 6 
the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall 
commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass 
against the Lorp, and that soul be guilty; then they 7 


* Or, according to his burden and his duty, as &c. 





(ce) v-vi. Various Laws and Regulations, including the ordeal of 
jealousy (v. 11-31) and the law of the Nazirite (vi. 1-21). 

v. 1-4. Regulations for safeguarding the ceremonial purity of 
the wilderness camp, which was hallowed by the presence of 
Yahweh (verse 3, ‘in the midst whereof I dwell,’ for which see 
the introductory remarks to ch. ii). Exclusion from the camp, 
which the earlier law, Lev. xiii-xiv, prescribed only for the leper, 
is here extended to other forms of uncleanness. For uncleanness 
from ‘issues’ or discharges, see Lev. xv, and for that caused by 
proximity to or contact with a corpse see especially Num. xix. 


5-10. A supplement to Lev. vi. 1-7, the law dealing with breach 
of trust. The special feature of the supplement is the provision 
for the case of the person wronged having died without leaving 
any ‘next of kin’ to whom restitution might be made (verse 8). 
In such a case the amount due is paid to the priest as the repre- 
sentative of Yahweh, with whom the offender had broken faith 
(see introductory note to Lev, vi. 1 ff.). 

6. to doa trespass against the LORD: lit. ‘in breaking faith 


7) ve 


vs 


214 NUMBERS 5, 8-12. P 


shall confess their sin which they have done: and he - 
shall make restitution for his guilt in full, and add unto 
it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him in respect 


8 of whom he hath been guilty. But if the man have no 


kinsman to whom restitution may be made for the guilt, 
the restitution for guilt which is made unto the Lorp 
shall be the priest’s ; besides the ram of the atonement, 


9 whereby atonement shall be made for him. And every 


heave offering of all the holy things of the children of 
Israel, which they present unto the priest, shall be his. 


1o And every man’s hallowed things shall be his: what- 


72 


soever any man giveth the priest, it shall be his. 
And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 





with Yahweh,’ the Author of the moral law and the Guardian of 
morality (see note on Lev. v. 15). 

8. the ram of the atonement: the ‘expiation ram’ prescribed 
in Lev. vi. 6, ‘by means of which he (i, e. the priest) shall perform 
the rite of expiation on his behalf’ ; for this rendering see above, 
Pp. 52. 

9f. A general statement of the priest’s dues, based on the pre- 
ceding special case. 

every heave offering, &c. : here in the comprehensive sense 
of ‘ contribution,’ ‘ oblation,’ see note on Lev. vii. 14. 


11-31. The ordeal of jealousy. Ifa husband suspects that his 
wife has been unfaithful to him, he may bring her ‘ before 
Yahweh ’—in post-exilic practice, to the Temple—when the priest 
shall submit her to a double test, an oath of purgation and a 
peculiar water ordeal, minutely described in the text. If she is 
innocent, no injurious effects ensue; if, on the contrary, she is 
guilty, the combined curse and the water of the ordeal produce 
certain physical effects which proclaim her guilt to all the world. 
It is probable that, in its present form, this section combines two 
originally distinct but closely allied forms of procedure (note, for 
example, the double nomenclature of the offering prescribed in 
verse’ 15, the repetition of the setting of the woman before 
Yahweh in verses 16 and 18, and especially the curious fact that 
now the priest is represented as making the woman drink the 
water /wice—see the tabular statement in C-H., Hex. ii. 192, and 
ef. Stade, ZATW. xv [1895] 166-178). Common to both, how- 
ever, is the implication that there were no witnesses of the 


NUMBERS 5.13, P 215 


- the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man’s 
wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, and 





woman’s sin, assuming her to have been guilty, and accordingly 
that the ordinary judicial procedure was inapplicable. 

The passage is noteworthy as being the only explicit illustration 
in the O. T. of the world-wide institution of the ordeal (see the 
literature cited by Gray, Numbers, p. 44f., aiso the note below on 
Xx. 13, the name Meribah). Among the Semitic peoples, as else- 
where, the favourite ordeals were those of fire and water (Rel. 
Sem.? 179 ff., S. A. Cook, The Laws of Moses and the Code of 
Hlanunurabi, 64f.). The latter Code supplies instructive parallels 
to both the oath and the ordeal in circumstances similar to those 
of the Hebrew law. Thus section 131 runs: ‘If the wife of 
a man is accused by her husband, although she has not been 
caught ... (in the act), she shall swear by a god; thereafter 
(i.e. having attested her innocence upon oath) she shall return to 
her house.’ And section 132: ‘Jf the wife of a man has had the 
finger pointed at her on account of another man, although she 
has not been caught’. . . (in the act), she shall plunge into the 
sacred river for her husband.’ This water ordeal is more fully 
described in sect. 2 of the Code, from which it is seen that ‘if the 
sacred river (or rather ‘the river-god’) overcomes’ the person 
plunging or plunged into it, it is a sign that he (or she) is guilty, 
whereas if the person escapes ‘the river-god makes that man 
innocent and has saved him.’ Ordeal by fire and water still sur- 
vives, as part of the recognized judicial procedure, among the 
Bedouin of the Sinai peninsula, as may be seen from the interesting 
account given by Lord Cromer in his Report on Egypt and the 
Sudan in 1905 (Government Blue-book), pp. 13 ff, ‘The Sinai 
Peninsula.’ 

From another point of view this section has a speciai interest 
for the O.T. student, inasmuch as it belongs to a group of laws 
having their origin in beliefs and practices of remote antiquity, 
which were taken over and invested with a new significance by 
the later exponents of the religion of Yahweh. To this group 
belong also the antique ceremony for the purification of the leper 
(Lev. xiv. 4ff.), the kindred rite of ‘the goat for Azazel’ 
(xvi. 8, atf.), and the ‘red heifer’ of Num. xix. For the com- 
piler of this chapter—whether we label it P’, P*, or P*—the oath 
and the ordeal are the divinely appointed means by which God, 
by whom our secret sins are made manifest (Ps. xc. 8, 1 Cor. 
xiv. 25), clears the innocent and punishes the guilty. For the 
later development of the law see the Mishna treatise Sdfah (the 
adulteress). 

12. and commit a trespass against him: better, ‘and break 


— 


3 . 


“a rey 


216 NUMBERS 5. 14-17. P 


a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes 
of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, 
and there be no witness against her, neither she be 
14 taken in the act ; and the spirit of jealousy come upon 
him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled : 
or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be 
15 jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled: then shall 
the man bring his wife unto the priest, and shall bring 
her oblation for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley 
meal ; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense 
thereon; for if is a meal offering of jealousy, a meal 
offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. 
16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before 
17 the Lorp: and the priest shall take holy water in an 
earthen vessel ; and of the dust that is on the floor of the 
tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water : 





Ba! yi 





faith with him,’ the same expression as in verse 5, which perhaps 
accounts for this section being placed here. 

13. and be kept close, and she be defiled: the subject of both 
verbs is the woman ; render: ‘and she be undetected, although 
she has (in fact) defiled herself.’ Verse 14* contemplates a case - 
of guilt, as here, while 14° provides for the case of unjustified 
suspicion. 04 

15. and shall bring her oblation for her: the offering is 
really the husband’s, render therefore: ‘the oblation required in 
her case.’ For the quantity see on Lev. v. 11, and for the usual 
oil and frankincense, here absent (cf. /oc. cit.), see Lev. ii. 1 ff 

a meal offering of memorial: better, ‘ of remembrance,’ as 
explained by the words following. ‘When Yahweh forgets, 
guilt goes unpunished ; when He remembers, He visits the sinner 
(Gray, im /oc., with reff.). For a suggested explanation of the 
double nomenclature see p. 214, but it may be that the ‘remem- 
brance-offering’ is the genus of which the ‘jealousy-offering’ is 
a species. 

17. holy water: an expression found only here in O.T, The 
Mishna explains it doubtfully as water from the brazen laver 
(Sofah, ii. 2). W. R. Smith regarded it as ‘an isolated survival,’ 
denoting ‘ water from a holy spring’ (Rel. Sent.? 181), It is more 
probable, however, that we should read with the LXX ‘living 


NUMBERS 5. 18-20. P 217 


and the priest shall set the woman before the Lorp, and- 


let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and put the 
meal offering of memorial in her hands, which is the 
meal offering of jealousy: and the priest shall have in 
his hand the water of bitterness that causeth the curse: 
and the priest shall cause her to swear, and shall say 
unto the woman, If no man have lien with thee, and 
if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness, * being under 
thy husband, be thou free from this water of bitterness 
that causeth the curse: but if thou hast gone aside, 


® Or, with another istead of thy husband See Ezek. xxiii. 5, 
Rom. vii. 2. 





water’ (see note on Lev. xiv. 5), or that the epithet ‘holy ’is here 
given by anticipation to water which only became so after it had 
been mixed with the sacred dust from the floor of the Tabernacle. 
18. and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose: probably 
that she might appear as a mourner, cf. Lev. x. 6, xxi. ro. 
the water of bitterness: so called not because it contained 
bitter ingredients, but as causing ‘bitterness’ in the sense of 
physical pain and injury. The peculiar combination of epithets— 
‘the pain-dealing, curse-bringing water’—may be due to the 
presumed duplicate sources (so C-H., Hex. ii. 192), or it may be 
that for ‘ water of bitterness” we ought to read by a slight change, 
as in some of the Versions, ‘the water that brings (the guilt) to 
light.’ In this case the second epithet may be a gloss (cf. Kittel, 
Biblia Hebraica, in loc.) 


19-22. The priest administers the oath of purgation. The 
nearest O.T. parallel is found in the early law-code, Exod. xxii. 
to ff. (cf. 1 Kings viii. 31 f.), where the plaintiff and the accused 
both appear ‘before God,’ and ‘the oath of Yahweh shall be 
between them both.’ A closer parallel has been already cited 
from the Code of Hammurabi. The oath as a means of detecting 
guilt is still held in the greatest respect by certain of the Arab 
tribes (see Jaussen, Coufumes des Arabes (1908), pp. 188 ff., 
where some curious details are given as to the tenor of the oath 
and the mode of administering it; cf. PEF St. 1897, p. 131, an 
account of a man accused of adultery who attests his innocence by 
an oath in the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem). 

19. being under thy husband: and therefore bound to keep 
faith with him ; the alternative rendering of the margin is less 
probable, 


18 


21 


22 


33 


24 


218 NUMBERS 5. 21—24, — P 


* being under thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and 
some man have lien with thee besides thine husband: 
then the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the 
oath of »cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, 
The Lorp make thee a curse and an oath among thy 
people, when the Lorp doth make thy thigh to fall away, 
and thy belly to swell; and this water that causeth the 
curse shall go into thy bowels, and make thy belly to 
swell, and thy thigh to fall away: and the woman shall 
say, Amen, Amen. And the priest shall write these 
curses in a book, and he shall blot them out into the 
water of bitterness: and he shall make the woman drink 
the water of bitterness that causeth the curse: and the 


* Or, with another istead of thy husband See Ezek. xxiii. 5, 
Rom, vii. 2. > Or, adjuration 





21 comes in awkwardly between verse 20 and its logical 
sequence in verse 22 (‘but if... and-if., . then this water,’ &c.). 
Its presence may be due either to the imperfect assimilation of the 
sources, or to the desire of a later editor to emphasize the fact 
that it is Yahweh Himself who is the Author of the physical 
penalties ensuing. In the antique formula itself (verse 22) these 
are ascribed to the efficacy of the water of the ordeal. For the 
euphemisms of the text see Gray, Numbers, pp. 48, 53 f. 

The LORD make thee a curse... among thy people: so 
that a Jew wishing to curse a woman shall say, ‘ Yahweh make 
thee like * (naming the guilty party), as in the case given in 
Jer. xxix. 22. Illustrations of the opposite are found in the 
blessings recorded in Gen. xlviii, 20; Ruth iv. rr. 

23. The priest now writes out the words of the curse ‘in a book,’ 
i.e. on a piece of parchment (Sotah, ii. 4), and washes off the 
ink into ‘the water of bitterness.’ This part of the procedure is 
frankly magical in its origin, and has its analogies among many 
peoples, ancient and modern. The woman, it must be under- 
stood, drinks the curse with its magical potency in the case of 
guilt, 

24 ff. The potion was, of course, administered only once, and 
that not at this stage of the ordeal (verse 24) but, as stated in 26°, 
after the meal-offering, which the woman had held till now in 
her hand, had been presented at the altar and its ‘memorial’ 
burned (see on Ley. ii, 2—the term in the original is not that of 





NUMBERS 5. as=-G 2 P 219 


water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and 
decome bitter. And the priest shall take the meal offering 25 
- of jealousy out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the 
meal offering before the Lorn, and bring it unto the 
altar: and the priest shall take an handful of the meal 26 
offering, as the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the 
altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the 
water. And when he hath made her drink the water, 27 
then it shall come to pass, if she be defiled, and have 
committed a trespass against her husband, that the water 
that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become 
bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall fall 
away : and the woman shall be a curse among her people. 
And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean ; then she 28 
shall be free, and shall conceive seed. This is the law of 29 
jealousy, when a wife, * being under her husband, goeth 
aside, and is defiled; or when the spirit of jealousy 30 
cometh upon a man, and he be jealous over his wife ; 
then shall he set the woman before the Lorp, and the 
priest shall execute upon her all this law. And the man 3; 
shall be free from iniquity, and that woman shall bear 
her iniquity. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 6 2 

® Or, goeth aside with another instead of her husband 





verse 15 above). Fora probable explanation of the discrepancy 
see the introductory note. 

24, 27. the curse shall enter ... and become bitter: a 
better sense would certainly be obtained if we could read: ‘shall 
enter .. . to bring (the guilt) to light,’ see note on verse fro. 

29-31. A concluding summary, repeating the purpose of ‘the 
law of jealousy.’ 


Chapter vi is occupied almost entirely with the law of the 
Nazirite, viz. (1) 1-8, the general contents of the Nazirite vow, 
probably the kernel from which the rest of this fora has been 
developed; (2) 9-12, the interruption of the vow caused by 


A Ga ach a aS 
220 NUMBERS 6.3. P 


the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either 

man or woman shall make a special vow, the vow of 

«a Nazirite, to > separate himself unto the Lorp: he 

shall separate himself from wine and strong drink; he 

shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, 

neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat fresh 
* That is, one separated or consecrated. > Or, consecrate 





accidental defilement by a dead body; and (g) 13-21, the pro- 
cedure to be followed on the expiration of the period of the vow. 
The points* of contact which the law shows with P%, such as the 
reference to ‘the door of the tent of meeting,’ are probably 
editorial, its real affinity being rather with the older ‘érath under- 
lying the Holiness Code (Lev. xvii-xxvi). 

The Hebrew word ndzir denotes one ‘ consecrated’ or ‘devoted’ 
to Yahweh; hence ‘devotee’ is the nearest English equivalent. 
The Nazirite vow was of two kinds, lifelong and temporary. The 
only certain example of the lifelong devotee in the O.T. is 
Samson (Judges xiii. 5, 7, 14, xvi. 17), although Samuel is 
usually reckoned’ as such, The fact that Amos (ii. 11) mentions 
the Nazirites in parallelism with prophets suggests that in his 
day ‘young men’ took the vow for life. It is probable, however, 
that from the first the vow was in most cases taken for a short 
period only (for modern analogies see Rel. Sem.* 332 f.), and it is 
for this class of Nazirite alone that the present chapter legislates. 
Here the obligations imposed by the vow are three in number: 
(1) the hair must remain unshorn during the validity of the vow; 
(2) total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors and even from 
grapes, ‘fresh’ or ‘dried’ ; (3) rigid avoidance of defilement through 
contact with a corpse. Of these the first is probably the oldest, 
as it was the most characteristic, element in the Nazirite vow, as 
appears from the figurative use of the term #a@sir to denote the 
undressed vine (Lev. xxv. 5, 11; cf. the remark on a similar 
metaphor in xix. 23, p. 133). Since the third of the obligations 
above noted represents a taboo which is shared only with the 
High Priest (Lev. xxi. 11), Kautzsch concludes that the Priests’ 
Code intends to represent the Nazirites as forming ‘a lay priest- 
hood ... allied to the actual priesthood as a condition of high 
consecration to God’ (Hastings’s DB. v. 658). 

2. shall make a special vow, &c.: rather, ‘ would take upon 
him or her the vow of a Nazirite.’ 

3 f. The second of the three special taboos noted above. ‘Strong 
drink’ (shékar) is here a comprehensive term for all sorts of 
intoxicating liquors, date-wine, pomegranate-wine (Cant, viil. 2, 


7 


NUMBERS 6. 4-9. P 221 


grapes or dried. All the days of his *separation shall 4 
he eat nothing that is made of the grape-vine, from the 
kernels even to the husk. All the days of his vow of 5 
separation there shall no razor come upon his head: 
until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth 
himself unto the Lorp, he shall be holy, he shall let the 
locks of the hair of his head grow long. All the days 6 
that he separateth himself unto the Lorp he shall not 
come near to a dead body. He shall not make himself 7 
unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, 
or for his sister, when they die: because his separation 
unto God is upon his head. All the days of his separa- 8 
tion he is holy unto the Lorp. And if any man die 9 


® Or, consecration Or, Naziriteship 





R.V.) &c., except ordinary grape-wine. Originally shékar prob- 
ably meant wine prepared from fermented date-juice. (For the 
history of the word see the writer’s art., ‘Wine and Strong 
Drink,’ in ZB. iv. col. 5309 f.) Abstinence from wine was one 
of the features of the Nazirite vow in the days of Amos (ii, rt). 
Wine and strong drink were also forbidden to the priests when 
on duty (Lev. x. 9), as they are forbidden by the Koran to ail 
true Muslims. Abstinence from intoxicants was also one of the 
distinguishing marks of the sect of the Rechabites (Jer. xxxv. 2-8). 

4. from the kernels even to the husk. The real meaning 
of the words so rendered is unknown: most recent scholars 
favour ‘unripe grapes’ and ‘tendrils,’ the points of the latter 
being prized as food by the modern fellahin. 

5. For the sacredness of the hair of the head, by many 
primitive peoples regarded as the seat of the soul, and the 
religious practices, such as hair-offerings and the like, arising 
therefrom, see Rel. Sem.*, 324 ff. Here, however, the unshorn hair 
is regarded merely as an outward sign that its owner is under this 
vow of consecration. 

6f. The only parallel to this third taboo, as has been pointed 
out, is found in Lev. xxi. rz f., where the High Priest, like the 
Nazirite, is interdicted from approaching the dead body of even 
his nearest relative. The interdict is less stringent in the case 
of the ordinary priest (ibid. 1 ff.). 


9-12. Regulations for the case of accidental breach of the last 


10 


II 


12 


13 


222 NUMBERS 6. 10-13. P 


very suddenly beside him, and he defile the head of his 
separation ; then he shall shave his head in the day of 
his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it. And 
on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves, or two 
young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tent of 
meeting : and the priest shall offer one for a sin offering, 
and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement 
for him, for that he sinned by reason of the dead, and 
shall hallow his head that same day. And he shall 
separate unto the Lorn the days of his separation, and 
shall bring a he-lamb of the first year for a guilt offering: 
but the former days shall be void, because his separation 
was defiled. 

And this is the law of the Nazirite, when the days 


taboo, by which a seven days’ defilement is incurred. On the 
seventh day the devotee must shave his head, and on the eighth 
offer a sin-offering and a burnt-offering ; thereafter he must begin 
anew his period of separation. 

9. the head of his separation: in our idiom, ‘his consecrated 
head’ (see note on Lev. xiv. 8). The defilement, even though 
accidental, is laid to the charge of the Nazirite, ‘ but unintentional 
sin plays a large part in the priestly law, as indeed elsewhere’ 
(Gray). According to the Mishna the shorn hair in this case was 
not burned (cf. verse 18) but buried, a practice familiar to anthro- 
pologists. 

in the day of his cleansing: this suggests the rites of the 
eighth day; render, ‘in the day when he becomes clean,’ his 
uncleanness having passed away by the close of the seventh day. 

10. The modest offerings here required are those prescribed for 
similar forms of uncleanness, Lev. xii. 8, xiv. 22, xv. 14. 

12. The first and last clauses of this verse go together, and 
mean that the Nazirite shall renew his vow for the same period 
as before, the portion of that period already passed having been 
cancelled by the defilement. The intervening clause requiring 
a guilt-offering comes too late, and is an inappropriate gloss. The 
closing words should be read with LXX: ‘because he defiled his 
consecrated head’ (cf. verse g). 


13-20. The rites to be performed at the expiration of the vow. 
These include the offering of all the main types of sacrifice with 


NUMBERS 6. 14-18. P 223 


of his separation are fulfilled: he shall be brought unto 
the door of the tent of meeting: and he shall offer his 
oblation unto the Lorp, one he-lamb of the first year 
without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe-lamb 
of the first year without blemish for a sin offering, and 
one ram without blemish for peace offerings, and a basket 
of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, 
and unleayened wafers anointed with oil, and their meal 
offering, and their drink offerings. And the priest shall 
present them before the Lorp, and shall offer his sin 
offering, and his burnt offering: and he shall offer the 


to 


4 


ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lor», with - 


the basket of unleavened bread : the priest shall offer also 
the meal offering thereof, and the drink offering thereof. 
‘And the Nazirite shall shave the head of his separation at 
the door of the tent of meeting, and shall take the hair 
of the head of his separation, and put it on the fire which 


the exception of the guilt-offering, and the shaving off and burning 
of the devotee’s hair. 

13f. It is difficult to see why the Nazirite should be ‘brought’ 
by others; read either, ‘he shall come’ (the change required is 
very slight), or ‘he shall bring his oblation unto . .. meeting, and 
he shall offer it,’ &c. (Kittel). 

15. and their meal offering, &c.: ‘their’ refers back to the 
burnt- and peace-offerings of the previous verse, which receive 
an accompanying meal-offering and a libation of wine, as pre- 
scribed in xv. 2ff. The cereal gifts of the first half of the verse 
are parts of an independent meal-offering, for which see Lev. ii. 
1 ff. and notes. 

18. The shorn hair is burnt with the fat of the peace-offering 
upon the altar of burnt-offering ; contrast the procedure indicated 
in the note on verse 9. Although this part of the ritual may 
have had its roots in the primitive and wide-spread rite of the 
hair-offering (see Rel. Sem.?, cit. supra), no such offering is con- 
templated by the Hebrew legislator. The burning of the hair 
*is rather the simplest way of disposing of that which was con- 
ecrated to Yahweh and was therefore holy, and so had to be pro- 
tected from all risk of profanation* (Kautzsch). 





224 NUMBERS 6. 19-23, FP 


19 is under the sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest 


shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram, and one 
unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened 
wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazirite, 


20 after he hath shaven ¢he Aead of his separation: and the 


21 


22 


23 


priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the ~ 
Lorp ; this is holy for the priest, together with the wave 
breast and heave * thigh : and after that the Nazirite may 
drink wine. This is the law of the Nazirite who voweth, 
and of his oblation unto the Lorp for his separation, 
beside that which he is able to get: according to his vow 
which he yoweth, so he must do after the law of his 
separation. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 

® Or, shoulder 





19f. In the case of the Nazirite’s offerings, the officiating 
priest receives in addition to the statutory ‘wave breast and 
heave thigh,’ i.e. the breast that has been waved and the thigh 
that has been set apart (for these see notes on Lev. vii. 14, 30, 34), 
the contents of an extra wave-offering as described in the text. 
When the full ceremony has been completed, the interdict on 
wine is removed. x 

21. beside that which he is able to get: render ‘ apart from 
whatever else he may be able to afford,’ over and above ps statu- 
tory offerings. ) 


22-27. The priestly blessing. Its position here instead of 
Lev. ix. 23 ‘is another, and not the least striking, illustration of the 
lack of systematic arrangement which characterizes the legislative 
portions of the Pentateuch. The Hebrew text is artistically 
arranged in three short verses (24-26) of three, five, and seven 
words respectively, each verse divided into two parts, giving 
a climactic arrangement of 2+1, 3+2, and 4+3 words. The 
contents of the priestly blessing have been thus happily and 
tersely summarized by Kautzsch (Die heilige Schrift des Alten 
Testaments, 3rd ed., p. 194) : ‘In beautiful climax it leads in three 
menibers from the petition for material blessing and protection to 
that for the favour of Yahweh as spiritual blessing, and finally 
to the petition for the bestowal of the shalom, the peace or wel- 
fare in which all material and spiritual well-being is comprehended.’ 


NUMBERS 6. 24—7.1. P 225 


Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall 
bless the children of Israel ; ye shall say unto them, 

The Lorp bless thee, and keep thee: 

The Lorp make his face to shine upon thee, and be 
gracious unto thee: 

The Lorp lift up his countenance upon thee, and give 
thee peace. 

So shall they put my name upon the children of Israel; 
and I will bless them. 

And it came to pass on the day that Moses had made 
an end of setting up the tabernacle, and had anointed it 
and sanctified it, and all the furniture thereof, and the 
altar and all the vessels thereof, and had anointed them 





Verse 27 shows that the blessing, although couched in the form 
of a prayer, is to be understood as a real Divine benediction. 
There are no decisive criteria for determining the age of the 
blessing, but it may safely be assumed that it was already in use 
in the Temple before the exile. For details as to its use in the 
later Temple and in the Synagogues, see Schiirer’s History of the 
Jewish People, div. 11, vol. ii. 82f. 

27. For the significance attaching to the ‘name’ of Yahweh 
in this connexion, see Kautzsch in Hastings’s DB. v. 640 f. with 
reference to Giesebrecht’s monograph on this subject. 


(d) vii. The offerings of the secular heads of the tribes. 

This chapter, said to be the longest in the Bible, is to be classed 
among the latest elements in the Pentateuch. Its. author, in 
Kuenen’s words, ‘ wishes to introduce the heads of the tribes... 
as models of liberality towards the sanctuary which his own con- 
temporaries would do well to copy.’ The offerings are of two 
kinds : (1) a gift of six wagons and twelve oxen for the transport 
of the Tabernacle (contrast ch. iv, where everything is to be 
carried by the Levites); (2) identical gifts from each of the twelve 
princes, but offered on twelve successive days, consisting of gold 
and silver vessels for the service of the sanctuary, with sacrificial 
animals and other material for the dedication ceremony. 

1. The day here specified was the first anniversary of the 
exodus (see Exod. xl. 17), an exact month, therefore, before 
the date assigned to the legislation of Num. i-iv, the data of which 

- are neyertheless assumed throughout this chapter, a clear proof of 
the late origin of the latter. 


Q 


226 NUMBERS 7. 2-10. P 


a and sanctified them ; that the princes of Israel, the heads 
of their fathers’ houses, offered ; these were the princes 
of the tribes, these are they that were over thenr that 

3 were numbered: and they brought their oblation before 
the Lor», six covered wagons, and twelve oxen; a wagon 
for every two of the princes, and for each one an ox: and 

4 they presented them before the tabernacle. And the 

5 Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Take it of them, that 
they may be to do the service of the tent of meeting; 
and thou shalt give them unto the Levites, to every man 

6 according to his service. And Moses took the wagons 

7 and the oxen, and gave them unto the Levites. Two 
wagons and four oxen he gave unto the sons of Gershon, 

8 according to their service: and four wagons and eight 
oxen he gave unto the sons of Merari, according unto 
their service, under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron 

9 the priest. But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none: 
because the service of the sanctuary belonged unto them; 

10 they bare it upon their shoulders. And the princes 
offered * for the dedication of the altar in the day that it 
was anointed, even the princes offered their oblation 

® Or, the dedication-gift 





7 ff. To the Gershonites, whose ‘ charge’ consisted chiefly of 
the curtains and hangings of the Dwelling and the court (iii. 25 f., 
iv. 24 ff.), only two wagons are assigned, while the Merarites, 
who were responsible for the transport of the wooden framework 
of the Dwelling, the heavy silver bases, pillars, &c. (iii, 36f., 
iv. 31 f.) receive four. The Kohathites, on the other hand, have 
still to bear the ark and the other ‘most holy things” on their 
shoulders, as in iii. 31 f., iv. 4-15. David, however, did not 
scruple to place the ark on a cart (2 Sam. vi. 3, ef. 1 Sam. vi. 
8, 11—but see also 2 Sam. xv. 24-27 for the ark carried by the 
priests). 

10. for the dedication of the altar: rather, as margin, ‘for 
the dedication-gift of the altar’ (so probably verse 11, and 
certainly verses 84, 88), referring back to the gift of the wagons 
and oxen, The paragraph should end here, 


¢ 
NUMBERS 7, 11-18. P 227 


before the altar. And the Lorn said unto Moses, They 1 
shall offer their oblation, each prince on his day, for the 
dedication of the altar. 

_ And he that offered his oblation the first day was 1 
Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah: 
and his oblation was one silver charger, the weight thereof 1 
was an hundred and thirty sheke/s, one silver bowl of 
seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary ; both 
of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal 


T 


offering; one golden spoon of ten shefe/s, full of incense; 14 


one young bullock, one ram, one he-lamb of the first 1 


5 


year, for a burnt offering ; one male of the goats for a 16 


sin offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two 1 
oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first 
year: this was the oblation of Nahshon the son of . 
Amminadab. 

On the second day Nethanel the son of Zuar, prince 


_ 





11-83. The other gifts of the ‘ princes’ are to be offered each 
on twelve successive days, beginning with the secular head of the 
tribe of Judah. The names are those already introduced in chs. i 
and ii. In the twelve sections into which verses 12-83 are 
divided, ‘the circumlocution is carried to the utmost possible 
extent. Apart from one or two additional variations in the first 
two sections, the same formula, consisting of 118 English words, 
is repeated for each of the twelve tribes, with the alteration of 
only six words for the number of the day and the name and tribe 
of the prince’ (C-H. Hex. ii. 194 f.). 

13. one silver charger . .. one silver bowl: the former— 
elsewhere rendered ‘dish ’—was a large, round dish resembling 
the catinum of the Romans; the latter, as the etymology shows, 
was used by the priests to catch the blood of the sacrificial victims, 
and is frequently rendered ‘bason.’ Taking ‘the shekel of the 
sanctuary’ at 224 grains (see on Lev. v. 15), since 10 Phoenician 
shekels weighed exactly 42 Troy ounces, the weights of the 
‘chargers’ and the ‘bowls’ are respectively civca 60 and 33 02. 
Troy. 

14. one golden spoon: rather, as LXX, ‘one golden cup’; 
Such incense-cups were formerly visible in the representation of 
the table of shew-bread on the Arch of Titus. 


Q 2 


7 


8 


+228 NUMBERS 7. 19-35. P ‘ 


19 of Issachar, did offer: he offered for his oblation one 
silver charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and 
thirty sheke/s, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after 
the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine 

20. flour mingled with oil for a meal offering; one golden 

21 spoon of ten sheke/s, full of incense ; one young bullock, 

, one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burnt offer- 

ai ing ; one male of the goats for a sin offering; and for 
the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five 
he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the 
oblation of Nethanel the son of Zuar. 

24 On the third day Eliab the son of Helon, prince of the 

25 children of Zebulun : his oblation was one silver charger, 
the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty sheke/s, one 
silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled with 

26 oil for a meal offering ; one golden spoon of ten sheke/s, 

27 full of incense; one young bullock, one ram, one helamb 

28 of the first year, for a burnt offering ; one male of the 

29 goats for a sin offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace 
offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he-lambs 
of the first year: this was the oblation of Eliab the son 
of Helon. 

30 On the fourth day Elizur the son of Shedeur, prince 

31 of the children of Reuben: his oblation was one silver 
charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty 
shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the 
shekel of the sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour 

32 mingled with oil for a meal offering ; one golden spoon 

33 of ten sheke/s, full of incense ; one young bullock, one 
ram, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering ; 
one male of the goats for a sin offering; and for the 
sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he- 


NUMBERS 7. 36-50. P 229 


goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the obla- 
tion of Elizur the son of Shedeur. 

- On the fifth day Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai, 36 
prince of the children of Simeon: his oblation was one 37 
silyer charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and 
thirty sheke/s, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after 
the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine 
flour mingled with oil for a meal offering; one golden 38 
spoon of ten sheke/s, full of incense ; one young bullock, 39 
one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burnt 
offering; one male of the goats for a sin offering; 40 
and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five 41 
rams, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: 
this was the oblation of Shelumiel the son of Zuri- 
shaddai. 

On the sixth day Eliasaph the son of Deuel, prince of 42 
the children of Gad : his oblation was one silver charger, 43 
the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty sheke/s,-one 
silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled with 
oil for a meal offering ; one golden spoon of ten shekels, 44 
full of incense; one young bullock, one ram, one he- 45 
lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering; one male of 46 
the goats for a sin offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace 47 
offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he-lambs 
of the first year: this was the oblation of Eliasaph the 
son of Deuel. 

On the seventh day Elishama the son of Ammihud, 48 
prince of the children of Ephraim: his oblation was one 49 
silver charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and 
thirty seke/s, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the 
shekel of the sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour 
mingled with oil for a meal offering; one golden spoon 50 


a 
\) ree 
ahr Re 
% 





230 NUMBERS 7. 51-67. B 


51 of ten sheke/s, full of incense; one young bullock, one — 
ram, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering ; : 
5? one male of the goats for a sin offering; and for the 
sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he- 
goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the obla- 
tion of Elishama the son of Ammihud. 
54 On the eighth day Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur, 
55 prince of the children of Manasseh: his oblation was 
one silver charger, the weight thereof was an hundred 
and thirty sheke/s, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, 
after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of 
56 fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering; one 
57 golden spoon of ten sheke/s, full of incense; one young 
bullock, one ram, one he-lamb of the first year, for a 
58 burnt offering ; one male of the goats for a sin offering ; 
59 and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five 
rams, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this 
was the oblation of Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. — 
60 On the ninth day Abidan the son of Gideoni, prince 
61 of the children of Benjamin: his oblation was one silyer 
charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty 
shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel 
of the sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour mingled 
62 with oil for a meal offering; one golden spoon of ten 
63 shekels, full of incense ; one young bullock, one ram, one 
64 he-lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering ; one male of 
65 the goats for a sin offering ; and for the sacrifice of peace 
offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five helambs ~ 
of the first year: this was the oblation of Abidan the son 
of Gideoni. 
66 On the tenth day Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai, 
67 prince of the children of Dan: his oblation was one — 
silver charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and ~ 


NUMBERS /7. 68-83. P 231 


thirty sheke/s, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the 
shekel of the sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour 
mingled with oil for a meal offering ; one golden spoon 68 
of ten sheke/s, full of incense; one young bullock, one 69 
ram, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering ; a 
one male of the goats for a sin offering ; and for the a 
sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five 
he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the 
oblation of Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai. 

On the eleventh day Pagiel the son of Ochran, prince 72 
of the children of Asher: his oblation was one silver 73 
charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty 
shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the 
shekel of the sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour 
mingled with oil for a meal offering ; one golden spoon 74 
of ten sheke/s, full of incense ; one young bullock, one 75 
ram, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering ; 
one male of the goats for a sin offering; and for the 
sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he- 
goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the oblation 
of Pagiel the son of Ochran. 

On the twelfth day Ahira the son of Enan, prince of 78 
the children of Naphtali: his oblation was one silver 79 
charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty 
shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the 
shekel of the sanctuary ; both of them full of fine flour 
mingled with oil for a meal offering; one golden spoon go 
of ten shekels, full of incense; one young bullock, one 81 
ram, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering ; 
one male of the goats for a sin offering ; and for the : 
sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he- 
goats, five he-lambs of the first at this was the oblation 
of Ahira the son of Enan. 


aT hee ria 
4 


Be ae ome 
hey 


232 NUMBERS. 7.84-8.2, 9B 


84 This was the * dedication of the altar, in the day when 
it was anointed, » by the princes of Israel: twelve silver 
85 chargers, twelve silver bowls, twelve golden spoons: each 
silver charger weighing an hundred and thirty sheke/s, 
and each bow! seventy: all the silver of the vessels two 
thousand and four hundred sheke/s, after the shekel of 
86 the sanctuary ; the twelve golden spoons, full of incense, 
weighing ten shekels apiece, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary: all the gold of the spoons an hundred and 
87 twenty shekeds : all the oxen for the burnt offering twelve 
bullocks, the rams twelve, the he-lambs of the first year 
twelve, and their meal offering: and the males of the 


88 goats for a sin offering twelve: and all the oxen for the 


sacrifice of peace offerings twenty and four bullocks, 
the rams sixty, the he-goats sixty, the he-lambs of the 
first year sixty. This was the *dedication of the altar, 
89 after that it was anointed. And when Moses went into 


the tent of meeting to speak with him, then he heard 


_the Voice speaking unto him from above the mercy-seat 


that was upon the ark of the testimony, from between the 
two cherubim: and he spake unto him. 
82 And the Lorn spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
® Or, dedication-gift > Or, at the hands of 











84-88. Concluding summary of the whole contents of ‘the 


dedication-gift.’ 

89. A curious fragment having no connexion with what now 
precedes or follows. The words ‘ with him’ presuppose a refer- 
ence to Yahweh immediately before, which is now missing. 
Note also the abrupt ending of the verse, whére one expects 
‘saying .. .’ to follow. The representation of ‘the Voice’ 
accords with Exod. xxv. 22 (P), and it has been conjectured that 
the sequel contained the command to set forward from Sinai 
referred to in x. 13 below (also P8). 


(e) viii. The dedication of the Levites (cf. ili. 5-18). 
This, the main subject of the chapter, is prefaced by a brief 
instruction to Aaron with regard to the lamps of the golden 


NUMBERS 8. 3,4. P 233. 


Aaron, and say unto him, When thou ® lightest the lamps, 
the seven lamps shall give light in front of the candle- 
stick. And Aaron did so; he Plighted the lamps thereof 3 
so.as to give light in front of the candlestick, as the LorD 
commanded Moses. And this was the work of the 4 
candlestick, © beaten work of gold; unto the base there- 
of, axd unto the flowers thereof, it was beaten work: 
according unto the pattern which the Lorp had shewed 


Moses, so he made the candlestick. 
® Or, seftest up > Or, set up © Or, turned 





‘candlestick’ (1-4), and followed by a new regulation of the age- 
limit of active service for the Levites (23-26). The rest of the 
chapter (5-22) deals with the purification of the Levites and with 
their presentation ‘for a wave offering unto Yahweh,’ as a solemn 
dedication of their order for the service of the Tabernacle. This 
section is not homogeneous for, to mention but one of several 
features, the command to ‘wave’ the Levites is first given to 
Aaron (verse 11) but thereafter twice to Moses (verses 13, I5). 

The generally accepted view is that the first draft of the section 
is from the hand of one who wished to provide the Levites with 
a consecration ceremony analogous to that recorded in Lev. viii 
for the priests. In it Moses took the leading part. A later 
student of the law expanded this account mainly by giving greater 
prominence to Aaron throughout. Even the first draft may be 
later than P®, 


1-4. The gist of this ¢évah is contained in verse 2°, a mere 
variation of Exod. xxv. 37. As there is no record of compliance 
with this earlier command in Exod. xxxvii. 17-24, the verses 
before us may have been inserted here by some one who desired 
to make good the omission. The oil for the lamps is also the 
subject of a special /évah (Lev. xxiv. 1-4). 

2. When thou lightest the lamps: the margin ‘when thou 
settest up the lamps’ is decidedly to be preferred. 

in front of the candlestick: the Jampstand was placed on 
the south side of the Holy Place, opposite the table of shewbread 
on the north side; Aaron is to place the lamps with their spouts 
pointing northwards, the position in which naturally their illumi- 
nating capacity would be greatest. 

4. On the contents of this verse see Hastings’s DB. iv. 663 f. 
With illustration (Kennedy). An attempt has been made by the 
Same writer to trace the evolution of the lamp in Palestine in the 
art. ‘Lamp’ in Hastings’s DB. (1909). 


234 NUMBERS 8. 5-10. PB * 


5,6 And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Take the 
Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse 

7 them. And thus shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse 
them: sprinkle the water of expiation upon them, and 
let them cause a razor to pass over all their flesh, and 
let them wash their clothes, and cleanse themselves. 

8 Then let them take a young bullock, and its meal offer- 
ing, fine flour mingled with oil, and another young 

9 bullock shalt thou take for a sin offering. And thou 
shalt present the Levites before the tent of meeting: and 
thou shalt assemble the whole congregation of the chil- 
10 dren of Israel : and thou shalt Present the Levites before 











5-22. eriiectnes" for the purificdtion and dedication of the 
Levites and the carrying out of the same. The essential part of 
the section is contained in verses 6-13; ‘the rest consists of 
variants on parts of’ these verses, ‘a resetting of iii. 5-13, and 
stereotyped formulae’ (Gray). 

6. and cleanse them: Heb. /ahér, denoting ‘the negative 
process’ of purification from ceremonial uncleanness. The priests, 
on the other hand, underwent also ‘the positive process of 
receiving the qualities of holiness’ (see Exod. xxix. 1, Lev. viii. 12, 
‘to sanctify them’). The Levites, in short, were dedicated, the 
priests consecrated for their respective offices. 

7. the water of expiation: A.V. ‘water of purifying,’ literally, 
if one may coin an English term on the model of at-one-ment, 
‘ water of un-sin-ment,’ for the removal of sin conceived in the 
antique manner as a physical stain that can be washed away (see 
the notes on the original term /attath, p. 48, and cf, verse 2t 
below). The water of ‘un-sin-ment’ or purification was most 
probably pure water (contrast Lev. xiv. 4 ff.) as in the case of the 
priests (ibid. viii. 6). The latter, however, were not merely 
sprinkled therewith but thoroughly washed, a detail which also 
points to the higher consecration of the priests. This gradation, 
further, underlies the direction that the Levites are to wash their 
ordinary clothes (cf. Exod, xix. 10, 14), while the priests at their 
consecration were clothed with the new priestly garments . 
(Lev. viii. 13). } 

10. How the author of this verse thought the laying on of 
hands on the part of half a million people was accomplished it is 
impossible to say. To suppose that he means only the tribal 
heads or other representatives is a mere makeshift. It is of 


NUMBERS 8. 11-15. P 235 


the Lorp: and the children of Israel shall lay their 
hands upon the Levites: and Aaron shall @ offer the 
Levites before the Lorp for a wave offering, Pon the 
behalf of the children of Israel, that they may be to do 
‘the service of the Lorp. And the Levites shall lay their 
hands upon the heads of the bullocks: and offer thou 
the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offer- 
ing, unto the Lorp, to make atonement for the Levites. 
And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before 
his sons, and offer them for a wave offering unto the 
Lorp. Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among 
the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be mine. 


And after that shall the Levites go in to do the service 
* Heb. wave, and in vv. 13, 15, 21- > Or, from 





more importance to note that the idea of substitution is not 
embodied in the rite, otherwise the firstborm only would have 
laid their hands upon the Levites. As in the similar case of the 
animal sacrifices (verse 12), the action is to be understood as 
expressing the withdrawal of the Levites from the ranks of 
common’ men, and their transference to the ranks of those who 
are henceforth ‘holy’ in virtue of their intimate relations with 
Yahweh (see the note on Lev. i, 4). 

11. and Aaron shall offer the Levites: there is no reason 
for departing from the usual meaning of the verb, viz. to ‘ wave,’ 
as noted in the margin. But how was the ‘waving’ of 20,000 
men to be done? Even so conservative a scholar as Baudissin 
admits that the ceremony ‘cannot be thought of as literally per- 
formed, but simply gives expression to a theory’ (art. ‘Priests 
and Levites,’ DB. iv. 85>). Just as the ‘wave breast” of the 
sacrifice was presented to Yahweh at the altar, and returned by 
Him to His representatives the priests (see on Lev. vil. 30), so 
the Levites, the gift of the theocratic community to Yahweh 
(verse 16), are handed over by Him to the priests ‘to do the 
service of the children of Israel in the tent of meeting’ (verse 19). 
Note that in verses 13, 15, it is Moses who is to ‘wave’ the Levites 
(see introductory note above). 

15. The earlier directions, apart from the intrusive verse 11, 
closed appropriately with the words of 15%. The greater part, if 
not the whole, of 15°-22 seems due to the later writer who drew 
his inspiration from iii. 5-13, and has combined the two divergent 
theories of the Levitical order {see above, p. 201). 


Leal 


SFr ee 
aE, o's 


236 NUMBERS 8. 16-21. B_ : 


of the tent of meeting: and thou shalt cleanse them, and 
16 offer them for a wave offering. For they are * wholly 

given unto me from among the children of Israel; in- 

stead of all that openeth the womb, even the firstborn of 

all the children of Israel, have I taken them unto me. 
17 For all the firstborn among the children of Israel are 

mine, both man and beast: on the day that I smote all 

the firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for 
18 myself. And I have taken the Levites instead of all 
19 the firstborn among the children of Israel. And I have 
given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from 
among the children of Israel, to do the service of the 
children of Israel in the tent of meeting, and to make 
atonement for the children of Israel: that there be no 
plague among the children of Israel, © when the children 
of Israel come nigh unto the sanctuary. Thus did 
Moses, and Aaron, and all the congregation of the chil- 
_ dren of Israel, unto the Levites: according unto all that 
the Lorp commanded Moses touching the Levites, so 
did the children of Israel unto them. And the Levites 
purified themselves from sin, and they washed their 


* See ch. iii. 9. > Heb. Nethunim, given. © Or, through 
the children of Israel coming nigh 


2 


° 


2 


_ 





19. to make atonement, &c. The Hebrew verb (Aipper) cannot 
here have the sense which it usually bears in the priestly writings 
(see pp. 51f.) ; the context requires ‘to provide a protection,’ or 
‘to act as a covering (or screen) for the children of Israel,’—an 
idea which many scholars believe to be inherent in the root, The 
last clause should preferably be rendered as in the margin; the 
Levites are to form a protecting cordon or screen for the sanctuary, 
lest any person without due ceremonial preparation should approach 
the holy place, and so incur the wrath and judgement of God 
(see i. 53). 

21. purified themselves from sin: the single word of the 
original means ‘unsinned themselves,’ or ‘had themselves un- 
sinned,’ in the sense explained in the note on verse 7. 


NUMBERS 8. 22—9. 1, P 237 


clothes; and Aaron offered them for a wave offering 
before the Lorp ; and Aaron made atonement for them 
to cleanse them. And after that went the Levites in to 
do their service in the tent of meeting before Aaron, and 
before his sons: as the Lorp had commanded Moses 
concerning the Levites, so did they unto them. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, This is that 
which belongeth unto the Levites: from twenty and five 
years old and upward they shall go in * to wait upon the 
service in the work of the tent of meeting: and from the 
age of fifty years they shall »cease waiting upon the 
work, and shall serve no more; but shall minister with 
their brethren in the tent of meeting, to keep the charge, 
and shall do no service. Thus shalt thou do unto the 
Levites touching their charges. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses in the wilderness of 
Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they 


® Heb. to war the warfare in the work. v Heb. return 
Jrom the warfare of the work. 





23-26. By this /drah the age of the Levite’s entry upon service 
is reduced from thirty (iv. 3) to twenty-five years. The upward 
limit of active service remains unchanged, but Levites above 
fifty years of age are here allowed to give voluntary assistance 
to their younger and more responsible brethren. 

24. to wait upon the service: cf. marg. and note on iv. 3. 


(f) ix. 1—x. 10. A supplementary Passover law and other 
matters. 

ix. 1-14. To persons prevented by ceremonial uncleanness, or 
by absence from their homes, from taking part in the ordinary 
Passover service on the fourteenth of the first month (Nisan), per- 
mission is here given to hold a supplementary service on the same 
day of the second month. The section is by most critics ‘regarded 
as in one piece P’, showing acquaintance with the usage of both 
P and Ps’ (C-H. Hex. ii. 199). 

1. The date, like that of ch. vii, is earlier than the date assigned 
to chs. i-iv (see i, 1). The day of the month is not specified, 
but it must have been before the tenth (Exod. xii, 3). 


bt ae 
238 NUMBERS 9, +8, BP 


2 were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Moreover 
let the children of Israel keep the passover in its ap- 
3 pointed season. In the fourteenth day of this month, 
@ at even, ye shall keep it in its appointed season: accord- 
ing to all the statutes of it, and according to all the 
4 ordinances thereof, shall ye keep it. And Moses spake 
unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the 
s passover. And they kept the passover in the first month, 
on the fourteenth day of the month, *at even, in the 
wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the Lorp com- 
6 manded Moses, so did the children of Israel. And there 
were certain men, who were unclean by the dead body 
of a man, so that they could not keep the passover on 
that day : and they came before Moses and before Aaron 
+ on that day: and those men said unto him, We are un- 
clean by the dead body of a man : wherefore are we kept 
back, that we may not offer the oblation of the Lorp in 
g its appointed season among the children of Israel? And 
Moses said unto them, Stay ye; that I may hear what 
the Lorp will command concerning you. 


* Heb. between the two evenings. 


3. at even: lit., as margin, ‘between the two evenings.’ The 
precise time intended is not clear, see Bennett (Cem. Bible) and 
M°Neile, The Book of Exodus, on Exod. xii. 6. 

according to all the statutes. .and.. ordinances thereof. 
Here we seem to have an indication of the late date of the section, 
the author having in mind the numerous references to the Pass- 
over in the Pentateuchal law-codes, e. g. Exod. xii. 21-27, xxxiv. 
25 (J); Deut. xvi. 1-7 (D); Exod. xii. 1-13, 43-50 (P®), &e. 

6. before Moses and before Aaron: the latter is here an 
intruder, as the singular pronoun (‘unto him’) of the next clause 
clearly shows (cf. note on i. 2). For the uncleanness here 
specified see especially ch. xix. 

8. Cf. the analogous cases, xv. 34f., Lev. xxiv. tafl, the 
assumption being that Moses would repair to the ‘tent of meeting’ 
to receive the Divine instructions (Exod. xxv. 22, ef. vii. 89 
above). 


NUMBERS 9. 9-1;. P 239 


And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of 
your generations shall be unclean by reason of a dead 
body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the 
passover unto the Lorp: in the second month on the 
fourteenth day *at even they shall keep it; they shall 
eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs: they shall 
leave none of it unto the morning, nor break a bone 
thereof: according to all the statute of the passover 
they shall keep it. But the man that is clean, and is not 


in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, that- 


soul shall be cut off from his people: because he offered 
not the oblation of the Lorp in its appointed season, 
that man shall bear his sin. And if a stranger shall 
sojourn among you, and will keep the passover unto the 
Lorp; according to the statute of the passover, and 
according to the ordinance thereof, so shall he do: ye 
shall have one’statute, both for the stranger, and for him 
that is born in the land. 

And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the 


® Heb. between the two evenings. 





11f. A summary of the chief provisions of the earlier Passover 
laws, cf. Exod. xii. 8, 10, 46. 

13. For this penalty for non-observance of the Passover ordin- 
ance see note on Lev. vii. 20. 

14. A summary of Exod. xii, 48 f. 


15-23. The fiery cloud which rested upor the Tabernacle from 
the day on which it was set up (so P’, Exod. xl. 34 ff.), regulates 
the movements of the children of Israel in the march from Sinai 
and throughout the later wilderness wanderings. The cloud is 
common to the traditions of all the Pentateuch sources, but these 
vary considerably in their conceptions of it as an indication of the 
Divine presence (see Gray’s art. ‘Pillar of Cloud and Fire,’ £Bz. 
ili. col. 3775 ff.; M¢Neile, The Book of Exodus, p. 81f.). The 
latter writes, ‘It is not impossible that the traditions of a guiding 
cloud may have had a natural basis. The custom is frequently 


9 
ie) 


It 


13 


14 


Da ee ee ee 
240 NUMBERS 9, 16-21. P 


cloud covered the tabernacle, even the tent of ‘the testi- 
mony : and at even it was upon the tabernacle as it were 

16 the appearance of fire, until morning. So it was alway; 
the cloud covered it, and the appearance of fire by night. 

17 And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the 
Tent, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: 
and in the place where the cloud abode, there the chil- 
18 dren of Israel encamped. At the commandment of the 
Lorp the children of Israel journeyed, and at the com- 
mandment of the Lorp they encamped: as long as 
the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they remained 
19 encamped. And when the cloud tarried upon the taber- 
nacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the 
20 charge of the Lorp, and journeyed not. And sometimes 
the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; then 
according to the commandment of the Lorp they re- 
mained encamped, and according to the commandment 
21 of the Lorp they journeyed. And sometimes the cloud 
was from evening until morning; and when the cloud 

' was taken up in the morning, they journeyed: or # #7 
continued by day and by night, when the cloud was taken 


noted in early times of carrying braziers containing burning wood 
at the head of an army or caravan, and the fire indicated, by night, 
the line of march [references follow] ... But, as so often, a 
natural custom or phenomenon rises, in the Hebrew traditions, 
to a beautiful and spiritual conception, of which all thought of the 
origin is lost’ (ibid. p. 82). 

15. even the tent of the testimony: only here and xvii. 7f., 
xviii, 2;.cf. ‘the tabernacle (lit. ‘dwelling ’) of the testimony,’ i. 50, 
53, X. Ir, and see the note on Lev. xvi. ref. 

16. the cloud covered it: add, with the Versions, ‘by day.’ 

— 19. It may be uncertain whether the preceding verses should 
be ascribed to P® or to a later hand, but from this point onwards 
it is agreed that we have a secondary expansion of verse 18. 
The author clearly wishes to impress upon his contemporaries 
with what scrupulous care their ‘pious fathers followed the 
directions of Yahweh’ (Baentsch). 


: NUMBERS 9. 22—10. 4. P 241 


up, they journeyed. Whether it were two days, or a 22 
month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the taber- 
-nacle, abiding thereon, the children of Israel remained 
encamped, and journeyed not: but when it was taken 
up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the LorD 23- 
they encamped, and at the commandment of the LorpD 
they journeyed; they kept the charge of the Lorp, at 
the commandment of the Lorp by the hand of Moses. 
And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Make thee 102 
_two trumpets of silver ; of #beaten work shalt thou make 
them: and thou shalt use them for the calling of the 
congregation, and for the journeying of the camps. And 3 
when they shall blow with them, all the congregation 
shall gather themselves unto thee at the door of the tent 
of meeting. And if they blow but with one, then the 4 
* Or, turned 


22. or a year: render, ‘or for a longer period.’ 


x. I-10. A command to Moses to make two silver trumpets, with 
Specification of the uses to which they are to be put. These are 
three in number: (1) to summon the whole congregation to the 
Sanctuary, or the princes only if one trumpet is sounded alone; 
(2) to give the signal for the march; and (3) to remind Yahweh of 
the need of His help in battle and of His presence at certain 
religious festivals. The first two apply only to the period of the 
sojourn in the wilderness, the last to the subsequent occupation 
of the holy land. This divergence, and the fact that verse 8° is 
the standing formula in P for the close of a separate ‘érah, have 
suggested that verses g and ro are derived from a separate source 
(H, according to C-H. Hex. ii. 200 and others). 

‘These trumpets or clarions are known to have been ‘long, 
straight, slender metal tubes, with flaring ends’ from their re- 
presentation on Jewish coins (see no. 18 of the plate accompanying 
the art. ‘Money,’ in DB. vol. iii), and especially on the Arch of 
Titus. To judge from the relative proportions of the trumpets 
and the table of shewbread against which they lean, the former 
must have been from three to four feet long (illustration in Driver, 

~Joel and Amos, p. 145, where see for the distinction between 
the metal trumpet and the shdphar, or ram’s horn, also rendered 
“ trumpet’ in our versions, e.g. Lev. xxv. 9). 


R 


=~ 


9 


19 





242 


princes, the heads of the thousands of lacie gather 
themselves unto thee. And when ye blow an the 
camps that lie on the east side shall take their j journey. 
And when ye blow an alarm the second time, the camps 
that lie on the south side shall take their journey: they 
shall blow an alarm for their journeys. But when the 
assembly is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but 
ye shall not sound an alarm. And the sons of Aaron, 
the priests, shall blow with the trumpets ; and they shall 
be to you fora statute for ever throughout your genera- 
tions. And when ye go to war in your land against the 
adversary that oppresseth you, then ye shall sound an 
alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered 
before the Lorp your God, and ye shall be saved from 
your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, and in 
your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your months, ye 
shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, 
and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings ; and they 
shall be to you for a memorial before your God: I am 


_the Lorp your God. 





5. when ye blow an alarm. Here, and more explicitly in 
verse 7, a distinction, no longer clear to us, is made between 
simple blowing and blowing or sounding an alarm. It is usually 
supposed that the former denotes a succession of single notes, the 
latter a continuous blast. ‘Alarm’ is the Italian call, all’ arme, 
‘to arms!’ 

9f. Here an entirely new idea is introduced; after the con- 
quest of Canaan the trumpets are to serve as ‘the Lord’s rem 
brancers’ (Isa. Ixii, 6, R.V.) in the day of battle and on the 
occasion of the high festivals of His worship. Their use in war 
is attested by 2 Chron. xiii. 12-16 and especially by 1 Mace, iv. 40, 
v. 33, and in various religious services frequently by the Chronicler — 
and other late writers, e. g. Ps. xeviii. 6; Ecclus. 1. 16, 

10. for 2 memorial before your God: rather ‘for a remem- 
brance’ or ‘a reminder ;’ a similar ‘reminder before the Lorp’ 
was the High Priest’s breastplate, the jewels of which are termed 
‘stones of remembrance’ (Exod. xxviii. 12, 29). 


NUMBERS 10.11. P 243 
_ [P] And it came to pass in the second year, in the 11 


Second Division. CHaptTers X. 11—XX. 13. 


TRADITIONS OF THE WILDERNESS PERIOD, WITH ACCOMPANYING 
LEGISLATION. 


In this division of Numbers is contained all that the compilers 
of the Pentateuch have seen fit to preserve of the early Hebrew 
traditions regarding the period which elapsed from the departure 
of the Israelites from Sinai until they were ready to undertake the 
invasion of the country east of the Jordan, a period roundly given 
as forty years. The origin and value of these traditions have been 
discussed in the Introduction. It is remarkable that they should 
be so few in number, and that these few should deal almost exclu- 
sively with defections and murmurings either of the whole ‘ con- 
gregation,’ or of some of its members. Here, for the first time 
since Exod. xxxiv, we mect with the two oldest Pentateuch 
sources (J and E) in addition to P, to whose scheme of chronology 

_the final narrative is in the main adjusted. 

While the characteristic vocabulary, style, and dominant interests 
of the priestly writers render it comparatively easy to distinguish 
the contributions of this school, those of the so-called ‘ prophetic’ 
history (JE) cannot always be so satisfactorily analysed. In the 
notation of the sources inserted in the text, accordingly, the usual 
composite symbol (JE) will be employed where the details of the 
literary analysis are, in the writer’s opinion, uncertain. Reference 
will be made from time to time in the notes to the more probable 
indications of the separate sources, but fuller guidance (see 
Bennett’s remarks on the ‘stubborn problem’ of the analysis of 
JE in Exodus, Cent, Bible, p. 28) must be sought in such standard 
works as B, W. Bacon’s Triple Tradition of the Exodus, Carpenter 
and Harford’s Hexateuch, the English translation of Kuenen’s 
Flexateuch, and the larger commentaries. The contents of x. r1— 
XX. 13 may be conveniently arranged in six sections, as given in 
sect. ii of the Introduction, ‘ Arrangement and Contents.’ 


(@) x. 11-xii. 16. From Sinat to Kadesh-Barnea. 

As now arranged, the incidents recorded in this section are all 
episodes of the march from ‘the mount of Yahweh’ (x. 33) to 
the oasis of Kadesh, which in the oldest sources is the scene of 
the sending out of the spies, the subject of the next section (xiii- 
xiv). The marks of P are found only in x, 11-28, the rest is 
from JE. 

x. 11-28. The departure from Sinai according to P, after a stay 
of rather less than twelve months (Exod. xix. 1; Num. i. 1, x. 11). 
The signal for the march is given by the lifting of the fiery cloud 
(cf. ix. 17). 


R2 


244 NUMBERS 10, 12-18. PB sorb pale 


‘second month, on the twentieth day of the nitty that 
the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the 
12 testimony. And the children of Israel set forward ac- 
cording to their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; 
13 and the cloud abode in the wilderness of Paran. And 
they first took their journey according to the command- 
14 ment of the Lorp by the hand of Moses. And in the 
first place the standard of the camp of the children of 
Judah set forward according to their hosts: and over his 
15 host was Nahshon the son of Amminadab. And over 
the host of the tribe of the children of Issachar was 
16 Nethanel the son of Zuar. And over the host of the 
tribe of the children of Zebulun was Eliab the son of 
17 Helon. And the tabernacle was taken down; and the 
sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who bare the 
18 tabernacle, set forward. And the standard of the camp 
of Reuben set forward according to their hosts: and 





12. the wilderness of Paran: its boundaries cannot be pre- 
cisely determined ; it certainly lay to the west of the Arabah, i.e. 
the continuation of the Jordan valley between the Dead Sea and 
the gulf of Akabah, and to the south of ‘the Negeb’ of Judah (see 
on xiii. 17), and may be regarded as corresponding roughly to the 
eastern part of the desert plateau now known as et-Tih. 


13-28. A later expansion (P%) of the two preceding verses, 
merely repeating ‘the imperatives’ of ii. 3ff. ‘in the past indica- 
tive’ (Bacon). The verbs are properly to be rendered as fre- 
quentatives, since they are intended to describe the practice of 
the tribes throughout the peried of the wanderings. 

14. the standard of the camp, &c.: rather ‘the division’ of 
the tribes grouped under the leadership of Judah ; see on ii. off. 

17 ff. The two groups of the Levites named from Gershon and 
Merari here march together between the first and second divisions 
of the secular tribes, the third group, the Kohathites, taking their 
place between the second and third divisions, The idea seems 
to be that the Tabernacle should be set up before the arrival of the 
sons of Kohath with its sacred furniture. In ii. 17, on the other 
hand, it is implied that the Levites marched in a body in the place 
here assigned to the Kohathites, 


2 NUMBERS 10. 19-29. P 245 


over his host was Elizur the son of Shedeur. And over 19 
the host of the tribe of the children of Simeon was 
Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. And over the host 20 
of the tribe of the children of Gad was Eliasaph the son 
of Deuel. And the Kohathites set forward, bearing the 2: 
sanctuary: and ¢he other did set up the tabernacle against 
they came. And the standard of the camp of the chil- 22 
dren of Ephraim set forward according to their hosts : 
and over his host was Elishama the son of Ammihud. 
And over the host of the tribe of the children of Manasseh 23 
was Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. And over the host 24 
of the tribe of the children of Benjamin was Abidan the 
_son of Gideoni. And the standard of the camp of the 25 
children of Dan, which was the rearward of all the camps, 
set forward according to their hosts: and over his host 
was Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai. And over the 26 
host of the tribe of the children of Asher was Pagiel 
the son of Ochran. And over the host of the tribe of 27 
the children of Naphtali was Ahira the son of Enan. 
Thus were the journeyings of the children of Israel 28 
according to their hosts; and they set forward. 

[J] And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Reuel 29 


21. bearing the sanctuary: consistency requires that we 
_ should read either ‘bearing the furniture of the sanctuary,’ or, by 
dropping a letter, ‘ bearing the holy things,’ as in iv. 15, margin. 
29-32 (J). Moses requests his father-in-law, Hobab, to act as 
guide to the camping-places in the wilderness. The verses are 
a fragment from J, opening abruptly and closing without giving 
Hobab’s final reply to Moses’ appeal. From Judges i. 16 (note 
R.V. margin) and other indications, it is more than probable that 
J represented Hobab as consenting. This was doubtless sup- 
pressed by the editor of the ‘ prophetic’ history (R*) in favour of 
the tradition given in E (verse 33).. The fragment is secured for 
J by the fact that in E, who gives Jethro as the name of Moses’ 
father-in-law, the latter has already returned home (Exod. xviii. 27). 
His designation here as ‘the Midianite’ is also probably editorial 


246 NUMBERS 10, 30-33. JE 


the Midianite, Moses’ father in law, We are journeying — 
unto the place of which the Lorp said, I will give it you : 
30-come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the 
Lorp hath spoken good concerning Israel. And he 
31 said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine 
own land, and to my kindred. And he said, Leave us 
not, I pray thee ; forasmuch as thou knowest how we are 
32 to encamp in the wilderness, and thou shalt be to us 
instead of eyes. And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea, 
it shall be, that what good soever the LorD shall do 
unto us, the same will we do unto thee. 
33 [BE] And they set forward from the mount of the 
Lorp three days’ journey ; and the ark of the covenant 
of the Lorp went before them three days’ journey, to 


(following E), for there are good grounds for believing that in J 
Hobab was a Kenite (Judges i. 16, iv. 11 ; see note on Exod. ii. 18). 

33-36 (E). The march begun under the supernatural guidance of 
the ark. 

33. the mount of the LORD: the expression ‘mount of 
Yahweh’ is not found elsewhere, and has here probably dis- 
placed E’s usual designation, ‘the mount of God (Elohim).’ 

the ark of the covenant of the LORD: since this is the title 
of the ark characteristic of the Deuteronomic historians (see 
Samuel, Cent. Bible, p. 321f.), we may assume that the older title 
‘the ark of Elohim’ originally stood here. 

went before them three days’ journey: the last three words 
must have slipped in from the preceding clause, for it is impossi- 
ble to conceive how an object three days’ march away could have 
served as a guide to each day’s camping-ground. It is not easy, 
however, to say how E pictured the situation. He can scarcely, 
as Baentsch and Gray suppose, have thought of the ark as moving 
of its own accord! It is more probable, as was first suggested by 
Klostermann, that the ark was placed on a cart (see on vii. 7ff.), 
the oxen of which were believed to move forward and to come to 
a halt in obedience to a Divine impulse, as in the parallel case 
recorded in 1 Sam. vi. 7-14 (so Holzinger and Kautzsch). In any 
case the picture of the march presented by E is very different 
from that of P, as sketched above in verses 13-28. Verse 34 is an 
editorial insertion for the purpose of bringing the march more into 
harmony with P’s representation, 


. 


NUMBERS 10. 34—11.1. B 247 


seek out a resting place for them. And the cloud of 34 
the LorD was over them by day, when they set forward 
from the camp. 

And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that 35 
Moses said, Rise up, O Lorp, and let thine enemies be 
scattered ; and let them that hate thee flee before thee. 
_And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lorp, unto the 36 
ten thousands of the thousands of Israel. 

And the people were as murmurers, ® sfeaking evil in 11 
the ears of the Lorp: and when the Lorp heard it, his 


Or, which was evil 


35 f. have preserved two small but precious poetical fragments, 
which were evidently addressed in early times to the ark as the 
embodiment of ‘the Presence of Yahweh’ (for this conception 
see Samuel in this series, p. 324f.)—the one when it headed the 
march as the Hebrew ‘host’ fared forth to fight ‘the battles of 
Yahweh’ (1 Sam. iv. 3ff.; 2 Sam. xi. 11: cf. Num. xiv. 42, 44; 
Joshua vi. 6ff.), the other when it returned, say to Shiloh or to 
Jerusalem, at the close of the campaign. The verses may have 
been taken by E from ‘the book of the Wars of Yahweh’ cited 
below, xxi. 14. : 

Bise up, O LORD : ‘ Yahweh “‘arose’’ when He gave His peo- 
ple victory’ (Gray) ; cf. Pss. Ixvili. 1, cxxxii. 8, the latter with an 
interesting variation to escape the identification of the ark with 
Yahweh. 

36. Budde’s emendation of this verse is now generally accepted 
(Actes du dixiéme Congr. Orient., 1894, iii. 18-21). He proposes a 
slight alteration of the opening word—s/ébah (lit. ‘sit down’) for 
shiibah—and the addition of a middle clause to make this verse 
metrically uniform with the preceding : ‘Alight, O Yahweh—and 
do thou bless—the myriad clans (see on i. 16) of Israel.’ 


xi. 1-3 (E). The first of several incidents, of which the place- 
name is in all probability older than the tradition which explains 
it (see the Introduction for a statement of the modern attitude to 
these ‘aetiological’ legends). Here the place called Taberah or 
Burning (site unknown and named again only Deut. ix. 22) is 
said to have received its name from a portion of the people having 
been burned by ‘the fire of Yahweh’ as a punishment for their 
murmuring. 

1. were as murmurers... LORD: more idiomatically, ‘began 
to complain loudly to Yahweh of their hard fate.’ 


ee 


248 NUMBERS 11, 2-4, BIE 


anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lorp burnt | 
among them, and devoured in the uttermost part of the 
2camp. And the people cried unto Moses; and Moses 
3 prayed unto the Lorp, and the fire abated. And the 
name of that place was called ® Taberah: because the 
fire of the Lorp burnt among them. 
4 [JE] And the mixed multitude that was among them 
* That is, Burning. 





‘in the uttermost part of the camp: since the ‘ tent of meet- 
ing,’ according to E, was pitched outside the camp (Exod. xxxiii, 
7ff.), this phrase suggests that the ‘fire of Yahweh’ was con- 
ceived as issuing from the sacred tent. 

2. and Moses prayed: cf. xxi. 7, also E, who loves to repre- 
sent his heroes as men of prayer (Gen. xx. 7, 17). 

The remainder of this chapter (4-35) now consists of a com- 
bination of two loosely connected traditions; (1) the provision of 
quails in response to another ‘murmuring,’ and (2) the appoint- 
ment and equipment of seventy elders to share with Moses ‘ the 
burden of the people.’ Of these narratives it is agreed that the 
first stood originally in J, the second in E. The further literary 
history of this chapter, however, is by no means clear, but there 
is much to be said in favour of the acute suggestion of B. W. Bacon 
that verses 10° (‘and Moses was displeased’), 11f., and 14 f. 
originally stood in Exod. xxxiii between 1-3 and 12 ff. (all J), 
and that the appointment of the elders originally followed verses 
7-11 (E) of the same chapter (Bacon, The Triple Tradition, &c., 
pp. 108, 141 f., 168 ; cf. the reconstructed sources, pp. 299, 336 f.). 
The result is to provide ‘a perfectly uniform, consistent, and 
characteristic narrative’ of the quails (J) in verses 4-6 (for 7-9 see 
notes), Io, 13, 18-24%, 31-35; leaving 16f., 24°-30 (E) for the 
appointment of the seventy elders. See further the note on 
verse Io. 

4. the mixed multitude: the rabble; cf. Exod. xii. 38 (J), 
where, however, a different word is used. The question with 
which the verse ends should remind the student of Israel’s early 
history that there were various cycles of traditions regarding this 
period in the wilderness, and that the compilers and successive 
editors of these traditions either did not attempt to remove their 
divergent elements, or did not succeed in doing so. Thus, apart 
from the abundant supply of sacrificial animals required by the 
assumptions underlying the Priests’ Code, we find repeated 1 refer- 
ences in J to the Hebrews’ ‘flocks and herds’ (Exod. xii. 38, 
xvii. 3, xxxiv. 3; cf, Num. xiv. 33 R.V. margin, xxxii. 1 [P]). 


NUMBERS 11. 5-10. JERI 249 


fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, 
and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember 5 
the fish, which we did eat in Egypt for nought; the 
cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the 
onions, and the garlick : but now our soul is dried away ; 6 
there is nothing at all: we have nought save this manna 
to look to. [R) And the manna was like coriander seed, 7 
and the *appearance thereof as the appearance of 
bdellium. The people went about, and gathered it, and § 
ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and seethed it 
in pots, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as 
the taste of > fresh oil. And when the dew fell upon the 9 
camp in the night, the manna fell ¢upon it. [J] And ro 
Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, 
® Heb. eye. > Or, cakes baked with orl © Or, with 


6. we have nought save this manna. J's narrative of the 
giving of the manna has been suppressed in favour of P’s, Exod. 
xvi. 1ff., for the relation of which to the present narrative see 
Bennett’s Exodus, in loc. 


7-9 (R) are best taken as an editorial parenthesis. 

7. like coriander seed. In the parallel description, Exod. 
xvi. 31, the point of likeness is said to be the white colour of the 
manna. 

as the appearance of bdellium : this rendering is preferable 
to ‘the colour’ of A.V. (cf. margin and note on Lev. xiii. 5). 
Bdellium is the Latin name, from the Greek, of a fragrant gum, 
a special quality of which came from Arabia, and is most prob- 
ably an accurate rendering of the rare word in the original (only 
here and Gen. ii. 12). This favours the identification of the 
biblical manna with the sweet juice which exudes from a species 
of tamarisk, still found in the peninsula. The Arabs term this \ 
gum ‘the manna of heaven.’ See the art. ‘Manna’ in the Bible / 
Dictionaries. 

8. as the taste of fresh oil: rather ‘of a dainty prepared 
with oil,’ cf. margin and Exod. xvi. 31, ‘ and the taste of it was 
like wafers made with honey.’ With verse 9 cf. ibid. verse 13 f. 

10 continues verse 6, and was probably centinued in J’s narra- 
tive by verse 13, which Bacon proposes to insert after the word 
‘tent’ with the words ‘and Moses cried unto Yahweh’ as a 


250 NUMBERS 11. 11-16. TE 
every man at the door of his tent: and the anger of the 
Lorp was kindled greatly ; and Moses was displeased. 
11 And Moses said unto the Lorp, Wherefore hast thou — 
evil entreated thy servant? and wherefore have I not — 
found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of 
12 all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this 
people ? have I brought them forth, that thou shouldest 
say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing- 
father carrieth the sucking child, unto the land which 
13 thou swarest unto their fathers? Whence should I have 
flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto 
14 me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. I am not 
able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy 
15 for me. And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray — 
thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight ; 
and let me not see my wretchedness. 
16 [E] And the Lorp said unto Moses, Gather unto me 
seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest — 








restored connecting clause (see the references given above). — 

any case the last two clauses of this verse cannot have a: 
originally in their present juxtaposition, and Bacon’s proposal to 
take the last clause with verses r1f. and 14f. as the sequel of 
Exod. xxxiii. 1-3 provides a suitable remedy. 

12. as a nursing-father: the addition of a single letter gives 
the more appropriate ‘nursing’ or ‘ foster mother.’ 

14. The apparent similarity of the words in which Moses here 
voices his complaint with those of Yahweh in verse 17 has been 
the fons et origo of the editorial confusion of the two independent 
incidents of this chapter. The resemblance, however, is super- 
ficial ; for while, in the latter verse, Yahweh is about to provide 
Moses with /ztman aid in his heavy task, in the context in which 
verse 14 originally stood Moses complains of the want of Divine 
help. 

16f. At this point the narrative of the gf sara of ‘ seventy 
men of the elders of Israel’ to share with Moses the ‘ burden’ of 
administration begins and is continued in verses 24%30. The 
whole, in all probability, originally stood in E in close connexion 
with E’s account of the Tent of Meeting in Exod. xxxiii, 7-11. 


> 


. 


NUMBERS 11. 17-23. EJ 251 


to be the elders of the people, and officers over them ; 
and bring them unto the tent of meeting, that they may 
stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk 
with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is 
upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall 
bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear 
it not thyself alone. [J] And say thou unto the people, 


_Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow, and ye shall eat 


flesh : for ye have wept in the ears of the LorD, saying, 
Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in 
Egypt: therefore the Lorp will give you flesh, and ye 
shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor 
five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days ; but a whole 
month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loath- 
some unto you: because that ye have rejected the Lorp 
which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, 
Why came we forth out of Egypt? And Moses said, The 
people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand 
footmen ; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that 
they may eat a whole month. Shall flocks and herds be 
slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of 
the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them ? 
And the Lorp said unto Moses, Is the Lorp’s hand 


There the sacred tent is expressly said to have been pitched 
‘without the camp, afar off from the camp’ (ibid. 7), which 
accords with its situation in the present narrative. In the 
priestly strata of the Pentateuch, as is well known, the Tent of 
Meeting occupies the centre of the camp (see above, pp. 194 ff.). 


18-24%, continuation of J’s narrative of the people’s request for 
flesh-food from 10°, ‘and the anger of Yahweh was kindled 
greatly, and [he said unto Moses], Say thou,’ &c. (Bacon). 

18. Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow: to fit them- 
selves to receive the promised gift of God, the people are to make 
themselves ceremonially ‘clean’ by washing their bodies and 
their garments, and by sexual continence, as more fully laid down 
in Exod. xix. 1of., 14f.; cf. Gen. xxxv. 2, 


17 


18 


19 
20 


21 


22 


23 





gathered seventy men ofthe elders of the people, and set 


25 them round about the Tent. And the Lorp came down 


in the cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit 
that was upon him, and put it upon the seventy elders: 
and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon 
26 them, they prophesied, but they did so no more. But 
there remained two men in the camp, the name of the 
one was Eldad; and the name of the other Medad: and 
the spirit'rested upon them ; and they were of them that 
were written, but had not gone out unto the Tent: and 
27 they prophesied in the camp. And there ran a young 


24. The first half of this verse must be read in connexion with 
verses 31 ff. The intervening section, 24-30, is the continuation 
of E’s narrative of the seventy elders. 

25. And the LORD came down in the cloud: i.e. to the 
Tent of Meeting. ‘In E the appearance of this theophanic cloud 
is intermittent (cf. xii. 5]; in P continuous after the completion 
of the Tabernacle. In both E and P, as distinguished from J, it 
is regularly associated with the Tabernacle ; see Pillar of Cloud 
in EBi. (Gray, Numbers, in loc.). 

and took of the spirit, &c. (cf. verse 17). That the ‘pro- 
phetic’ historian was careful to reproduce faithfully the early 
traditions as he received them is well seen from the present 
narrative. Here the spirit of prophecy is represented as some- 
thing almost material, the effect of which is to throw the recipient 
into a condition of ‘holy frenzy.’ The same picture of prophetic 
ecstasy is found in the early narratives of 1 Sam. X, 10-13, 
xix. 20-24. By the eighth century this conception had given 
place to a much loftier idea of Divine inspiration, which is found 
elsewhere in E’(e. g. ch. xii), as we should expect in a writer who 
was probably a contemporary of Amos and Hosea. 

they prophesied, &c. In view of the modern connotation of 
the word ‘ prophesy’ it would be better to render, ‘they became 
ecstatic,’ as explained in the preceding note (ef. the note on 
1 Sam. x. 5 in Cent. Bible). The following words, if the text is 
right, signify that the prophetic frenzy seized themon this occasion 


NUMBERS 11. 28-31. ET 253 


man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do 
prophesy in the camp. And Joshua the son of Nun, 28 
_ the minister of Moses, * one of his chosen men, answered 
and said, My lord Moses, forbid them. And Moses 29 
said unto him, Art thou jealous for my sake? would 
God that all the Lorp’s people were prophets, that the 
Lorp would put his spirit upon them! And Moses gat 30 
him into the camp, he and the elders of Israel. [J] And 31 
there went forth a wind from the Lorp, and brought 
quails from the sea, and let them fall >by the camp, 
® Or, from his youth Or, over, 





only ; the Targums and the Vulgate, however, read: ‘and they 
ceased not.’ : 

26 ff. Two of the seventy elders selected for administrative 
duty—such is the most probable view of the text—had apparently 
declined the honour and remained in the camp, but are neverthe- 
less seized with the same frenzy as the others. Joshua’s zeal for 
his master’s honour gives occasion for a noble and great-hearted 
utterance on the part of Moses. 

28. Joshua... one of his chosen men: this rendering seems 
intended to convey the impression that Joshua was one of the 
‘seventy.’ But the marginal rendering ‘from his youth’ is pre- 
ferable, though not free trom difficulty, and is quite intelligible 
when the narrative is read in its original setting (see Exod. 
XXxXili. 11, which also accounts for Joshua’s presence on this 
occasion). 

29 reveals a fine trait in the character of Moses. Not to him- 
self alone, nor to a limited circle, would this large-hearted man 
and greatest of the prophets confine the best gift of God. 


31-34 continue the narrative of the quails (J). 

31: a wind . .. brought auails from the sea. The ‘sea’ in 
question is probably the modern gulf of Akabah, the north-eastern 
horn of the Red Sea. The wind has already appeared in J’s 
story of the Exodus as the instrument of the Divine purpose, 
Exod. x. 13, I9, xiv. 21. Apart from some elements of exaggera- 
tion from which popular tradition is rarely free (cf. next note), the , 
description of the text is in complete accord with the phenomena / 
attending the annual migrations of the quails in the peninsula at ° 
the present day. The quail, a member of the partridge family, 
winters in Africa, and in spring crosses to Palestine ‘by myriads.” 
Making long flights and ‘ always flying with the wind,’ the birds ’ 


wt 


asa NUMBERS 11. 32412. 


about a day’s journey on this side, and a day's journey 
on the other side, round about the camp, and about two 
32 cubits above the face of the earth. And the people rose 
up all that day, and all the night, and all the next day, 
and gathered the quails : he that gathered least gathered 
ten homers : and they spread them all abroad for them- 
33 selves round about the camp. While the flesh was yet 
between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the anger of the 
Lorp was kindled against the people, and the Lorp 
34 smote the people with a very great plague. And the 
name of that place was called * Kibroth-hattaavah ; be- 
35 cause thtre they buried the people that lusted. From 
Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed unto Hazeroth ; 
and they abode at Hazeroth. 
12 [EB] And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses 
* That is, Zhe graves of lust. 





hes ane in an exhausted condition, when they are caught in 
great numbers. 

a day’s journey: a popular measure of distance, with the 
same indefiniteness as our ‘bow-shot’ or ‘stone’s throw’; 
unfortunately we have no clue to the mileage of ‘a day’s journey’ 
in the popular speech, In any case we have here an excusable 
exaggeration. ‘Two cubits may be taken as approximately three 
feet. 

32. ten homers: over too imperial bushels (see on Ley. 
xxvill. 16). The following clause informs us that the birds were 
cured by being dried in the sun, 

34, Kibroth-hattaavah: i.e., as margin, ‘the graves of lust.’ 
The locality is unknown. 

35. Hazeroth: lit. ‘enclosures,’ ‘settlements’; the identifica- 
tion with the modern ‘Ain el-Hadra, between Jebel Misa and 
Akabah, is very precarious. 





Ch. xii. Miriam and Aaron give expression to their jealousy 


of Moses, and to their claim to equality with him. Yahweh ap- 
pears in the cloud to vindicate Moses’ unique position and privi- 
lege as His prophet. Miriam is punished by being smitten with 
leprosy which, however, is ultimately removed at Moses’ request. 
While a complete solution of the literary and historical problems 
presented by this chapter is no longer possible, it is agreed that its 


’ 


NUMBERS 12. 2-4. E 256 


because of the Cushite woman whom he had married : 
for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, 2 
Hath the Lorp indeed spoken only * with Moses? hath 
_ he not spoken also *with us? And the Lorp heard it. 
Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men 3 
which were upon the face of the earth. And the Lorp 4 


* Or, dy 


immediate source is the Ephraimite document (E). This con- 
clusion is based on various points of contact with the E sections of 
the preceding chapter. Such are the position of the Tent of 
Meeting outside the camp (verse 4), the nature of the theophany 
(cf, xi, 25 with note), and the emphasis on the prophetic aspect 
of Moses’ activity. 

It is almost certain, however, that we have once more a case of 
the fusion of two originally distinct traditions, for it is difficult to 
see what jealousy of Moses as a prophet has to do with the ques- 
tion of his marriage. In the original version it is probable that, in 
one of the incidents at least, Miriam was the only offender—note 
her leading position in verse 1, ‘ Miriam and Aaron,’ and the fact 
that she alone is punished with leprosy. It is still more difficult 
to detect the historical background of the main tradition embodied 
in E’s narrative. Have we here a distant echo of forgotten con- 
troversies as to rights of precedence within the ranks of the priest- 
hood (so E. Meyer, Die Isvacliten u. ihre Nachbarstdmme, p. 94)? 
Or should we recognize in the poetical fragment, verses 6-8, the 
nucleus round which has gathered this tradition of the vindica- 
tion of Moses’ uniqueness as a prophet over against those even of 
his own family (cf. Exod. xv. 2o, ‘ Miriam, the prophetess, the 
sister of Aaron’) ? 

The chief interest of the section for the Old Testament student 
lies in the lofty conception which it presents to us of the nature 
of the Divine inspiration of the prophet. 

1. the Cushite woman. Of the many suggested explanations, 
the identification with Zipporah, the daughter of the priest of 
Midian, is still the best (cf. Exod. ii. 21, iii. 1). In this case it is 
usual to adduce the association of ‘ Cushan’ with ‘ Midian’ in the 
parallelism of Hab. iii. 7. The author of the gloss at the end of 
verse I, evidently taking ‘ Cushite’ in its usual sense of ‘ Ethiopian,’ 
found a reference to an unrecorded marriage of Moses, a view 
altogether less probable than that adopted above. 

3. Whether this verse be regarded as original in E, or, as some 
think, a later addition, its presence was early seized upon as an 
indication of the non-Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. 





tay A are 
Mat 


aut NUMBERS 125-8 B | 


spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto 
Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tent of meeting. 
5 And they three came out. And the Lorp came down 
in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, 
and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. 
6 And he said, Hear now my words: if there be a prophet 
among you, I the Lorp will make myself known unto 
7 him ina vision, I will speak with him in a dream. My 
servant Moses is not so; he is faithful in all mine house: 
8 with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, 





5. With the nature of this theophany compare the similar 
description in xi. 25 with Gray’s remarks quoted in the note there. 
they both came forth: i.e. came forward to the door of the 
Tent; the action is distinct from that similarly expressed in 
verse 4, which refers to the ‘coming out’ of the persons con- 
cerned from the camp to the sacred Tent pitched outside the 
latter. 


6-8. Yahweh’s words to Aaron and Miriam are cast in poetic 
form. 

In communicating His will to other prophets, Yahweh does so 
through the medium of visions and dreams (cf. Joel ii. 28), but to 
Moses He speaks directly ‘mouth to mouth.’ The prominence 
of dreams as a medium of Divine revelation is a characteristic 
feature of E’s narrative (Gen. xx. 3, 6, xxviii. I2, XXXI. IT, 24 
and often). 

7. My servant Moses: a title of honour also bestowed on 
Abraham (Gen. xxvi. 24) and Caleb (Num. xiv. 24), In later 
writings the prophets are frequently termed the ‘servants’ of 
God (see A. B. Davidson’s art. ‘Prophecy and Prophets’ in 
Hastings’s DB. iv. 113—the best introduction to the study of the 
whole subject of O.T. prophecy). 

faithful in all mine house: Moses’ work as the leader of 
Yahweh’s people is compared to that of a great man’s major-domo, 
such as Eliezer in the household of Abraham (Gen. xxiv. 2). 

8. mouth to mouth: an expression found only here, but in- 
dicating even more emphatically than the parallel ‘face to face’ 
(Exod. xxxiii, rr, Deut. xxxiv. 10) the immediateness of Moses’ 
inspiration. There is probably no more adequate definition of 
a prophet in the O.T. sense than the mouthpiece, or spokesman, 
of the Deity. Note the prominence given to the consecration of 
the mouth and the lips in the narratives of the call of Moses 


~~ NUMBERS 12. 9-14. E 257 


and not in dark speeches; and the form of the Lorp 
shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to 
speak against my servant, against’ Moses? And the 9 
anger of the Lorp was kindled against them; and he 
‘departed. And the cloud removed from over the Tent; 10 
and, behold, Miriam was leprous, as whife as snow: 
and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was 
leprous. And Aaron said unto Moses, Oh my lord, lay 11 
not, I pray thee, sin upon us, for that we have done 
foolishly, and for that we have sinned. Let her not, 12 
I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half con- 
sumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb. And 13 
Moses cried unto the Lorp, saying, Heal her, O God, 
I beseech thee. And the Lorn said unto Moses, If her 
father had but spit in her face, should she not be 


4 


~ 





(Exod. iv, 12, 15 f.: cf. vii. 1 f.), Isaiah (Isa. vi. 7), and Jeremiah 
(Jer. i.g). In this lofty conception of the nature of prophetic 
inspiration as ‘a communion of spirit with spirit’ (A. B. Davidson), 
E has left far behind the older mechanical view to which attention 
was called in the notes on the preceding chapter. 

10. It is impossible to explain why Aaron should have been 
excluded from the punishment which overtook Miriam, except on 
the hypothesis that in the earlier form of the tradition the latter 
figured alone, most probably with reference to Moses’ marriage 
to a Midianite (see on verse r), which she may have regarded as 
derogatory to the family dignity. 

11 ff. In these verses the superior dignity of Moses is further 
indirectly emphasized. He alone is recognized as qualified to 
intercede with Yahweh for the removal of his sister’s leprosy 
(see the note on xi. 2, and cf. xiv. 1g ff., xxi. 7 for Moses’ activity 
as intercessor) '. 

14. If her father had but spit in her face: an action recog- 
nized by Hebrew legislation (see Deut. xxv. 9) as inflicting the —- 


* The unique character of Moses’ inspiration, and his superiority 
in this respect to all other prophets, which is the main theme of this 
chapter, are worked out in detail by Maimonides in his famous work 
“The Strong Hand’, see H. H. Bernard, The Main Principles of 
the Creed and Ethics of the Fews ... from the Yad Hachazakah 
of Maimonides, pp. 116 ff. 


s 


55 


- bn 


258 NUMBERS 12. ale 2 EJP 





ashamed seven days? let her be shut up without the 
camp seven days, and after that she shall be brought 
in again. And Miriam was shut up without the camp — 
seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam 


16 was brought in again. [J] And afterward the people 


18 2 


journeyed from Hazeroth, [P] and pitched in the wilder- 
ness of Paran. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou 
men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I 


‘give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their 





loss of personal honour. The form of the original text 
that the narrative has been shortened here. It has been con- 
jectured that the narrative proceeded ‘if she had spoken against 
her father and mother ; and her father had spit in her face,’ &c. 
We must suppose that Miriam's leprosy was immediately removed, 
but a seven days’ exclusion from the camp ordered to mark the 
Divine disapproval. 

16. is composite ; 16* continues xi. 35 (J); 16°, introducing “the 


wilderness of Paran,’ is from P (see x. 12). 


(6) xili-xiv. The mission of the spies. a 

Twelve men of rank, one from each tribe, are sent to seaplane 
the land of Canaan with a view to ascertain the nature of the 
country, and especially to report upon the character and con- 
ditions of its inhabitants. After an absence of forty days, in 
which they penetrate to the extreme north of Palestine, the spies 
return to Kadesh. The ‘majority report’ is unfavourable as 
regards the land and entirely against the possibility of conquest. 
The minority, composed of Joshua and Caleb, report favourably 
of the land and advise an immediate advance in reliance upon 
Divine assistance. The people side with the majority, once more 
rebelling against their leaders and threatening the life of the two 
faithful spies. At this point Yahweh intervenes to upbraid the 
people for their lack of faith, and to announce that, as a punish- 
ment, they shall wander for forty years, and ultimately perish, in 
the wilderness ; no one over twenty years of age, save Joshua and 
Caleb only, is to be permitted to enter the land of promise. The 
ten faint-hearted spies are immediately punished with death. 

It has long been recognized that the story above summarized 
has been formed by the interweaving of two (ultimately three) 
independent records of this <ritical episode in the history of Israel 
in the wilderness, representing the prophetic (JE) and priestly 


NUMBERS 13.2. P 259 


fathers shall ye send a man, every one a prince among 





(P) sources respectively. The following shows the main results 
of the literary analysis!: 
JE xiii. 17-20 22-24 26° (from ‘to Kadesh’)-31 32°, 33. 


_P xiii. 1-17? 21 25-26" (¢o ‘ Paran’) 32° 
JE xiv. 1°,3,4 8-9 (11-24, see notes) 25 Shee) 30-45. 
P xiv.1*,2 5-7 Io 26-30 33-38 


If the passages indicated are read consecutively, it will be found 
that, apart from differences in phraseology and style which are 
more apparent in the original, the two main narratives differ in 
their representation in several important. particulars: (a) The 
place from which the spies ave sent out isin P the wilderness of 
Paran (xiii. 3), in JE, the beginning of whose narrative has not 
been preserved, it was evidently Kadesh (see xiii. 26, xxxil, 8, 
and cf. Deut. i. 19, based on JE) ; (8) The limit of their exploration 
in JE is Hebron or its neighbourhood (xiii. 22 ff.), in P the spies 
traverse the whole of Canaan from south to north (See on xiii. 21 
below); (¢) in JE the report concerning the land is that it is ex- 
tremely productive but impossible to subdue (verses 27 f.), in P 
that it is barren and unfruitful (verse 32, see note below) ; (d) The 
most striking divergence, however, one which of itself is sufficient 
to prove a difference of source, relates to the position of Joshua 
in the two narratives. In P he appears along with Caleb as one 
of the twelve spies (xiii. 8, xiv. 6), and with Caleb is exempted 
from the sentence of punishment pronounced in xiv. 30, 38; in 
JE, on the conirary, Caleb alone is represented as faithful to his 
trust (xiii. go), and as receiving his reward (xiv. 24, where see 
the note). 

As regards the historical interpretation of the section in its 
present form, it is probable that to later generations the long 
delay in entering Canaan appeared inexplicable save on the 
assumption that the generation which had experienced the 
wonders of Divine providence in the exodus from Egypt had in- 
curred the displeasure of Yahweh and forfeited the privilege of 
entering the promised land. To give effect to this conviction the 
older and doubtless historical traditions of the sending of spies 
and of an unsuccessful attempt to enter Canaan from the south 
were expanded in the various forms in which they are now pre- 
served in these chapters (the parallel narrative in Deut. i, which 
agrees in the main with JE, should be compared throughout). 


1 The further analysis of JE into its component parts is less certain 
and is not attempted here. For this, and for details of the analysis 
as a whole, see the standard works of Carpenter and Harford, Bacon, 
Kent (The Beginnings of Hebrew History, 215 ff.), and the larger 
Commentaries, 

$2 





260 NUMBERS 13, B>17. Pe f 


3 them. And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran- 
according to the commandment of the Lorp : all of them 

4 men who were heads of the children of Israel. And 
these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Sham- 

5 mua the son of Zaccur. Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat 
6 the son of Hori. Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son 
7 of Jephunneh. Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of 
s Joseph. Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun. 
‘a Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu. Of 
11 the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi. Of the 
tribe of Joseph, zame/y, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi 

12 the son of Susi. Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son 
13 of Gemalli. Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of 
14 Michael. Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of 
15 Vophsi. Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. 
16 These are the names of the men which Moses sent to 
spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of 
17 Nun Joshua. And Moses sent them to spy out the land 





8. the wilderness of Paran: see on x. 12. That the spies are 
not being sent from Kadesh, as in JE (see on verse 26), is evident 
from the fact that in P’s geography Kadesh was situated in the 
wilderness of Zin, which lay immediately to the north of that of 
Paran and was not reached in P's itinerary till a later date (xx. 1). 


4-16. The names of the spies, each of the twelve tribes sending 
as its representative a ‘prince’ (verse 3) or head of one of its 
subdivisions, The ‘princes’ or heads of the tribes themselves 
have been named more than once (i. 5 ff. and ii, vii, passim). 

8. Hoshea the son of Nun: changed by Moses to Yéhéshu‘a, 
i.e. Joshua (verse 16), by prefixing a significant part of the Divine 
name Yahweh. The necessity for this change is perhaps due to 
P’s view that the name Yahweh was first revealed (see Exod. vi.2f.) 
at a time which was too late for it to have formed part of Joshua’s 
original name. Joshua has already appeared in more than one 
capacity in the prophetic narrative (Exod. xvii. 9, 13 f., xxiv. 13, 
xxii. 17, xxxlii. rr, and Num. xi. 28). 


17-24. The journey of the spies, from JE with the exception 


NUMBERS 13, 18-21. PJEP © 261 


of Canaan, [JB] and said unto them, Get you up this 
way ® by the South, and go up into the mountains: and 


see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth 


therein, whether they be strong or weak, whether they be 
few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, 
whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that 
they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strong holds ; and 
what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there 
be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, 
and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was 
the time of the firstripe grapes. [P] So they went up, 
and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin unto 


® Or, mto 


of verse 21 (P). The beginning of JE’s narrative has been 
suppressed by the compiler in favour of the fuller account in P. 

17. Get you up this way by the South: rather, ‘Get you 
up now into the Negeb.’ ‘The Negeb,’ probably the ‘dry’ or 
‘parched (land),’ was the standing designation of the southern- 
most division of Palestine, the steppe region extending from the 
hill-country of Judah about Hebron to the Azazimeh mountains 
to the south of Kadesh (see Cheyne’s art. ‘ Negeb’ in EBz. with 
map). The constant use of this term for ‘South’ in the geogra- 
phical terminology of the Hexateuch (even in the orientation of 
the Tabernacle at Sinai, where the South was really on the 
opposite side from the Negeb!) is one of the most convincing 
proofs of the post-Mosaic date of the Hexateuch narratives. This 
use of Negeb for ‘South,’ as of ‘the (Mediterranean) Sea’ for 
‘West’ could only have originated in Palestine itself. 

20. the time of the firstripe grapes: the end of July or 
beginning of August. 

21 from P, continuing verse 17%, and continued in 25, 26%. 

the wilderness of Zin. Since Kadesh was within its borders 
(See on verse 3 above), the district from which, according to JE, 
the spies set out is here represented as part of the country to be 
explored. 
unto Rehob: also named Beth-rehob (cf. 2 Sam. x. 6 with 8), 

in the far north at the base of Mount Hermon and close to the 
later city of Dan (Judges xviii. 28 f.). It is here further described 
as lying at 


be 


ie) 


> 





262 NUMBERS 13. 22, 23. PJE 


22 Rehob, to the entering inof Hamath. [JE] And they 
went up “by the South, and came unto Hebron; and ~ 
Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, — 
were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before - 

23 Zoan in Egypt.) And they came unto the valley of 
Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one 
cluster of grapes, and they bare it upon a staff between 
two; chey brought also of the pomegranates, and of the 

* Or, into , 


the entering in of Hamath: i.e. at the entrance to (the 
city of) Hamath. Although Hamath was situated on the Orontes, 
about 150 miles due north of Rehob, it seems to have given its 
name to the narrow pass between Hermon and the Lebanon, 
described by Robinson as ‘a lofty mountain cleft, eight or nine 
miles wide.’ The ‘entrance to Hamath’ is often mentioned in 
the O.T. as the extreme northern boundary of Israelite territory. 

22. In JE, on the contrary, the spies did not penetrate beyond 

the neighbourhood of Hebron. This verse is usually assigned to 
J, leaving its duplicate in the two following verses to E. 

unto Hebron: later the chief city of Judah and the first 
royal residence of David, about twenty miles south of Jerusalem. 
According to Joshua xiv. 15, ‘the name of Hebron [imeaning 
probably ‘confederation’] aforetime was Kiriath-arba,’ i.e. ‘the 
city of the four (confederates?).’ The interesting chronological 
note at the end of this verse, according to which Hebron was 
founded ‘seven years before Zoan in Egypt,’ that is, Tanis in the 
eastern Delta, is regarded by Ed. Meyer as a ‘fragment of 
a genuine historical tradition, unique in the O.T.’ (Die Israeliten, 
&c., p. 447). This scholar takes the note as referring to the 
Hyksos era, which he dates from the founding of the temple of 
Seth in Tanis, civca 1670 8B.c. (see also Meyer, Gesch, des Altertums, 
2nd ed. [1907], vol. i, pp. 293 ff.). This gives 1677 B.c. as the 
probable date indicated by this note. 

the children of Anak: also verse 28, elsewhere described 
as ‘the sons of Anak’ (literall# ‘the Anak’), verse 33, or simply 
‘the Anakim’ (Deut. ii. 10 f.), a race of unknown origin occupying 
the country about Hebron from which they were dislodged by 
Caleb (Joshua xiv. 12 ff.), or, according to another tradition, by — 
Joshua (xi, 21 f.). The O.T. writers consistently represent the 
Anakim as men of abnormal stature. 

23. the valley of Eshcol: this name, which means ‘a cluster 

(of grapes),’ may perhaps be recognized in the modern Beit 
Ishkahil, about four miles north-west of Hebron. 


: NUMBERS 13. 24-28. JEPJE 263 


figs. That place was called the valley of * Eshcol, be- 
cause of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down 
from thence. [P] And they returned from spying out 
the land at the end of forty days. And they went and 
came to Moses, and to Aaron, andto all the congregation 
of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, 
[JE] to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, 
and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit 
of the land. And they told him, and said, We came unto 
the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth 
with milk and honey ; and this is the fruit of it. How- 
beit the people that dwell in the land are strong, and the 


a That is, a cluster. 





24. One of many examples of what may be termed the folk-lore 
of Canaanite place-names. Asa rule it is the name which gives 
rise to the story, not, as here suggested, the story to the name. 


25-33- The report of the spies, mainly from JE, but beginning 
with the notice of their return from P (25-26* to ‘ Paran’). 

26. to Kadesh: also named Kadesh-barnea (xxxii. 8, xxxiv. 4, 
&c.), Meribath-Kadesh (R.V. Meribah of Kadesh, xxvii. 14 ; Deut. 
XXXii. 51, see further the note on xx. 13 below), and once En- 
mishpat or Fountain of Judgement (Gen. xiv. 7). Kadesh is 
now usually identified with ‘Ain Kadis,—Musil (see below) writes 
‘Ain Kdeis,—a place with a series of springs and pools on 
the southern boundary of the Negeb, about fifty miles south of 
Beer-sheba. Recent descriptions of the place are given by Clay 
Trumbull, who rediscovered the site, in his Kadesh-Barnea (1884), 
Robinson in the Brblical World, xvii. (1901), 327 ff., with plan and 
photographs, and Alois Musil, Arabia Petraea, ii (1907), part 1, 
176 ff., also illustrated.1 Kadesh was the rallying-point of the 
Hebrew tribes and the centre of Moses’ activity as teacher and 
lawgiver in the period that elapsed between the exodus and the 
conquest of Eastern Palestine. Many recent scholars, indeed, 
maintain that the ‘mount of God’ of the oldest traditions is to be 
oe in the Boe peerhood of Kadesh See above, p. a 





1 Musil, howeees questions the now current {dentiieeee writing 
on p. 236: ‘I cannot conceal from myself that now, on the occasion 
of my third visit to the place, it seems still less adapted for identifica- 
tion with the biblical Kadesh-Barnea.’ 


24 


28 


Salina 
264 NUMBERS 13, 29-92. ior, ns 


cities are fenced, avd very great: and ak 
39 the children of Anak there. Amalek dwelleth in ‘the 
land. of the South; and the Hittite, and the Jebusite, 
and the Amorite, dwell in the mountains: and the 
Canaanite dwelleth by the sea, and along by the side 
30 of Jordan. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, 
and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we 
31 are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up 
with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; 
32 for they are stronger than we. [P] And they brought up 
an evil report of the land which they had spied out unto 
the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which 
we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eateth up the 











29. Of the peoples here cana the Amalekites were a 
nomad tribe with the raiding instincts of the modern Bedouin, 
and were still in the neighbourhood of the Negeb (R.V. ‘the 
South’) in David's time (r Sam. xxx. I, 14). The Hittites, the 
Kheta of the Egyptian, and the Khatti of the Assyrian inserip- 
tions, were a powerful non-Semitic, and probably no 
people who make their appearance about the beginning of the 
second millenium s.c. in Asia Minor. There they founded an 
extensive empire with its capital, as Winckler’s excavations in 
1906-7 have shown, on the site of Boghaz-keui in the district 
known later as Cappadocia. By 1500 3.c. they had advanced 
southwards into Northern Syria, where Carchemish on the 
Euphrates and the above-mentioned Hamath on the Orontes were 
Hittite centres at the date of the exodus. The Tebusites occupied 
the territory round Jerusalem which was taken from them by 
David (2 Sam. v. 6 ff.). Of the two remaining races here named, 
‘ Amorite’ is the general name for the pre-Israelite population of 
Palestine in the Pentateuch sources E and D, while J prefers the 
term ‘Canaanite.’ The Tel el-Amarna letters, however, show 
conclusively that the two peoples were quite distinct, for the 
‘land of A-mur-ru’ is there restricted to the parts of Syria 
‘north of Beyrout and the region of the Lebanon and Anti- 
lebanon,’ while Ki-na-ah-ni or Canaan stands for the country 
south of the Lebanons, ‘that is, for Palestine properly so called’ 
(for a complete presentation of the data see Dhorme, ‘ Les pays 
bibliques au temps d’el-Amarna,’ in the Revue he oe 7908, 
pp. 501 ff.). *. 

32. a land that eateth up the inhabitants ‘abowt Ik 


. 
. 
; 
{ 
. 


NUMBERS 13. 3314.5. PJEPJEPJEP 265 


inhabitants thereof; [JE] and all the people that we saw 

in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the 33 
»Nephilim, the sons of Anak, which come of the Nephi- 
lim: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and 
so we were in their sight. 

[P] And all the congregation lifted up their voice, 14 
[JE] and cried; and the people wept that night. [P] 
And ali the children of Israel murmured against Moses 2 
and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said 
unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of 
Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness ! 
[JE] And wherefore doth the Lorp bring us unto this 3 
land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones 
shall be a prey: were it not better for us to return into 
Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make 4 
a captain, and let us return into Egypt. [P] Then5 
Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the 
assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. 

* Or, giants 


barren and inhospitable land, utterly unable to support its in- 
habitants ; contrast the ‘ exceeding good land’ of xiv. 7 (also P). 
33. the Nephilim: a word of uncertain meaning, probably as 
margin, ‘the giants’; it occurs only here and Gen. vi. 4. The 
rest of the clause, identifying them with ‘ the children of Anak’ of 
verse 22, is absent from LXX, and is usually regarded as a gloss. 


xiv. I-10 describe the effect of the spies’ report upon the people ; 
the repetitions of verse 1 are due to the presence of the various 
sources. 

2 ff. Cf. Exod. xiv. rif., xvi. 3, and Num. xx. 4 for complaints 
similarly expressed. Here, however, the further step is taken of 
suggesting the appointment of another leader to take the people 
back to Egypt. The action of Caleb in ‘stilling’ the people, which 
comes in prematurely in xiii. 30, may have stood here in the 
original source (J), in which case verses 8 f. will have formed 
the conclusion of Caleb's speech. These verses give vigorous 
expression to the speaker’s faith in the Divine purpose and 
power. With Yahweh on their side, the Hebrews could not fail 
of success, 


Bay eis 
266 NUMBERS 14.61. PJEPJE 


6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of 


7 


Jephunneh, which were of them that spied out the land, 
rent their clothes: and they spake unto all the congrega- 
tion of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which 
we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good 


8 land. [JE] If the Lorn delight in us, then he will bring 


9 


10 


11 


12 


us into this land, and give it unto us; a land which 
floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not against 
the Lorp, neither fear ye the people of the land; for 
they are bread for us: their * defence is removed from 
over them, and the Lorp is with us: fear them not. 
[P] But all the congregation bade stone them with 
stones. And the glory of the Lorp appeared in the 
tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel. 
[JE] And the Lorn said unto Moses, How long will 
this people despise me? and how long will they not 
believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought 
among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and | 
® Heb. shadow, 


9. they are bread for us. ‘The people of the land’ are given 
us to ‘eat up,’ a not infrequent metaphor for ‘consume, destroy’ 
(xxiv. 8; Deut. vii. 16; Jer. x. 25, &c.). 

their defence is removed from over them: lit. ‘ their 
shadow’; ‘shadow,’ or rather ‘shade,’ is a common O. T. figure 
for ‘protection.’ So Hammurabi styles himself ‘the shade’ (sillu) 
of his land. Here the defence or protection of the Canaanites is 
most probably the native deities whose power was at an end now > 
that this earlier ‘fullness of the time’ had come; cf. Gen. xv. 16. — 


11-24. Yahweh in anger announces to Moses His intention to 
destroy His faithless people and to make of Moses a new and 
mightier nation. Moses once more assumes the réle of intercessor 
with success; the people are to be spared, but as a merited 
punishment they are doomed never to see the land of promise. ’ 
From this judgement Caleb alone is exempted. ; 

Critical opinion is unanimous in ascribing verses 11-24, On 
various grounds, to a later stratum of the prophetic narrative — 
(JE’, see Gray in loc.). A shorter statement must have stood 
originally in JE, of which verse 25 is the continuation. ‘ 

, 


NUMBERS 14. 13-20. JH 267 


disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater 
and mightier than they. And Moses said unto the Lorp, 
Then the Egyptians shall hear it; for thou broughtest 
up this people in thy might from among them; and 
they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: they have 
heard that thou Lorp art in the midst of this people; 
for thou Lorp art seen ®*face to face, and thy cloud 
standeth over them, and thou goest before them, in 
a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. 
Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the 
nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, 
saying, Because the Lorp was not able to bring this 
people into the land which he sware unto them, there- 
fore he hath slain them in the wilderness. And now, 
I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, accord- 
ing as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lorp is slow to 
anger, and plenteous in mercy, forgiving iniquity and 
transgression, and that will by no means clear ‘he guilty ; 
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, 
upon the third and upon the fourth generation. Pardon, 
I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according unto 
the greatness of thy mercy, and according as thou hast 
forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. And 
the Lorn said, I have pardoned according to thy word: 
. Heb. eye to eye. 





13 ff. The original is here in some confusion, but the general 
sense is clear. Moses appeals to God to spare His people out of 
regard (1) to His character and reputation as All-powerful (13-16), 
and (2) to His self-revelation as All-merciful (17-19). With 
Moses’ argument here and the offer made to him in verse 12 
cf. Exod. xxxii. 9-14, and with the special allegation of verse 16 
ef. its use in an earlier connexion, Deut. ix, 28. 

18. Expressly stated to be a quotation, viz. from Exod. xxxiv. 
6 f. (J), which we may therefore assume to have been before the 
author of this later passage in written form. 


5 


6 


w 


= 


7 






268 NUMBERS 14. ar-ay. JEP 


21 but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be 
22 filled with the glory of the Lorp; because all those men 
which have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought 
in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me — 
these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 
23 surely they shall not see the land which I swate unto 
their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me 
24 see it: but my servant Caleb, because he had another 
spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will 
I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed 
23; Shall possess it. Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite 
dwell in the valley : to-morrow turn ye, and get you into ~ 
the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea. 
26 [P] And the Lorp spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, 
24 saying, How long shai/ J dear with this evil congregation, 


24. Caleb receives the reward of his faith and fidelity, another 
Abdiel, ‘ faithful found among the faithless, faithful only he,’ With 
Moses (xii. 7) he shares the honourable title of Yahweh's ‘servant.’ 
For the fulfilment of the promise here made to Caleb see Joshua 
xiv. 6-15. 

The absence of Joshua here has been already characterized as 
the most striking divergence between the two main sources, and 
as convincing evidence against the homogeneity of chs, xiii, xiv. 
‘Had the whole narrative been by a single writer, who thought 
of Joshua as acting in concert with Caleb, it is difficult not to 
think that Joshua would have been mentioned beside Caleb—— 
not, possibly, in xiii. 30, but—in xiv. 24, when the exemption from 
the sentence of exclusion from Palestine is first promised’ (Driver, 
POT p63). 

25. The first half of the verse is to be regarded as a gloss, for it — 
‘is inconsistent with xiii. 29 as well as with xiv. 43, 45.’ In any 
case it is impossible to say what is meant by ‘the valley.’ 

by the way to the Red Sea: Heb. yam suph, the ‘sea of 
reeds’; here the name is applied, as in xxi. 4 and Deut. i. 40, 
taken from this passage, to the Gulf of Akabah, not as in Exod. 
x. 19, Num. xxxiii. ro f., and elsewhere, to the Gulf of Suez. 


26-38. mainly from P in continuation of verse 10, and giving 
the parallel account of the punishment of the people with the 
additional announcement that the period of the wanderings is to 


NUMBERS 14. 28-34. PJEP 269 


which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings 
of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. 
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lorn, surely as ye 28 
have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: your 29 
careases shall fall in this wilderness ; and all that were 
numbered of you, according to your whole number, from 
twenty years old and upward, which have murmured 
against me, surely ye shall not come into the land, con- 30 
cerning which I lifted up my hand that I would make 
you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and 
Joshua the son of Nun. [JE] But your little ones, 31 
which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring -in, 
and they shall know the land which ye have rejected. 
But as for you, your careases shall fall in this wilderness. 32 
[P] And your children shall be * wanderers in the wilder- 33 
ness forty years, and shall bear your-whoredoms, until 
your carcases be consumed in the wilderness. After 24 
the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, 
even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your 
-" Heb. shepherds. 





extend to forty years, to correspond to the forty days of the spies’ 
absence (verse 24), and that Joshua as well as Caleb is to be 
exempted from the general exclusion from Canaan of all over 
twenty years of age. 

30. I lifted up my hand that, &c.: ‘concerning which I sware 
that,’ &c., so rendered Exod. vi. 8. The promise referred to is, 
in P, first found in Gen. xvii. 8, and is repeated by him at least 
three times in Genesis and again in Exodus Joc. cit, In J the 
corresponding passages begin with Gen. xii. 7. 

31. and they shall know the iand: read, with LXX, ‘and 
they shall inherit,’ &c. 

33. your children shall be wanderers: render, as margin, 
‘shepherds,’ or ‘ shall feed their flocks’ ; see note on xi. 4. 

34. forty days...forty years. The writer, of course, intends 
the correspondence to be exact, in this reflecting the popular 
tradition and belief. But it should be remembered that the O.T. 

writers continually use ‘forty’ for a fairly large but indefinite 





270 NUMBERS 14. 35-42. PJE 


iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know *my 
35 alienation. I the Lorp have spoken, surely this will 
I do unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered 
together against me: in this wilderness they shall be 
36 consumed, and \there they shall die. And the men, 
which Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, 
and made all the congregation to murmur against him, 
37 by bringing up an evil report against the land, even those 
men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by 
38 the plague before the Lorp. But Joshua the son of 
Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive 
39 of those men that went to spy out the land. [JB] And 
Moses told these words unto all the children of Israel: 
40 and the people mourned greatly. And they rose up 
early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the 
mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto 
the place which the Lorp hath promised: for we haye 
sinned. And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye trans- 
gress the commandment of the Lorn, seeing it shall not 
prosper? Go not up, for the Lorpb is not among you; 


sf 


4 


n 


4 
® Or, the revoking of my promise 





number; as applied to the spies it means no more than that they 
were absent ‘a few weeks,’ and to the period of the wanderings, 
that ‘a generation’ elapsed between the exodus and the conquest 
of Canaan. 

ye shall know my alienation: the effect of my displeasure, 
or of the withdrawal of my favour and protection. 


39-45. Instead of obeying the Divine injunction to turn south- 
wards towards the gulf of Akabah (see on verse 25), the people, in 
self-willed defiance of Yahweh and in spite of Moses’ remon- 
strance, attempt to enter Canaan from the south, are defeated by 
the Amalekites and Canaanites and driven back to Hormah, Note 
that Deut. i. 40 ff. combines verse 25 of this chapter with 4o ff. as 
in the critical analysis here adopted. 

40. the top of the mountain: evidently the high ground over- 
looking Kadesh on the north. 

42. the LORD is not among you: neither in person, since 


NUMBERS 14. 43—15. 2. JEP 271 


that ye be not smitten down before your enemies. For 43 
there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, 
and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned 
back from following the Lorp, therefore the Lorp will 
not be with you. But they presumed to go up to the 44 
top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant 
of the Lorp, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. 
Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite 45 
which dwelt in that mountain, and smote them and beat 
them down, even unto Hormah. 


[P] And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak 15 2 
~unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye 
be come into the land of your habitations, which I give 


they were acting contrary to His express command, nor as repre- 
sented by the ark (verse 44 ; see note on x. 35 f.). 

45. even unto Hormah: in Deut. Joc. cit. ‘from Seir (LXX) 
even unto Hormah.’ The site of the latter is uncertain. Fora 
tradition as to the origin of the name Hormah, see xxi. 3 below, ~ 
and cf. Judges i. 17. 


(c) xv. A group of laws relating chiefly to ritual. 

Into this section the compiler has gathered a group of five 
unconnected laws, the majority of which supplement the ritual 
ordinances of Leviticus, and must have stood originally in the 
Priests’ Code. The last of the series (verses 37-41), however, 
shows unmistakable affinity with the Holiness Code, so that the 
whole were probably ‘connected and incorporated by the same 
editor who worked H into P’ (Gray). 


(1) 1-16. The first of the five laws prescribes the quantities of 
flour and oil for the cereal-offering, and of wine for the drink- 
offering, which accompanied the more important animal sacrifices. 
This supplementary minhah is to be distinguished from the inde- 
pendent minhah, or cereal-offering, which forms the subject of 
Lev. ii. The quantities here prescribed increase with the size 
of the sacrificial victim. For a tabulated comparison of these 
with Ezekiel’s prescriptions (Ezek. xlvi. 5-7, 11, 14) see Gray, 
in loc. The present law has a close parallel in those of ch. xxviii 
below. 


272 NUMBERS 15. 3-9. P 





3 unto you, and will make an offering by fire unto the 
Lorp, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice, *to accomplish 
a vow, or as a freewill offering, or in your set feasts, to 
make a sweet savour unto the Lorp, of the herd, or of 

4 the flock: then shall he that offereth his oblation offer 
unto the Lorp a meal offering of a tenth part of an ephah 
of fine flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of oil: 

5 and wine for the drink offering, the fourth part of an hin, 
shalt thou prepare with the burnt offering or for the 

6 sacrifice, for each lamb. Or fora ram, thou shalt prepare - 
for a meal offering two tenth parts of an ephah of fine” 

» flour mingled with the third part of an hin of oil: and for 
the drink offering thou shalt offer the third part of an hin 

8 of wine, of a sweet savour unto the Lorp. And when 
thou preparest a bullock for a burnt offering, or for 
a sacrifice, *to accomplish a yow, or for peace offerings 

g unto the Lorp: then shall he offer with the bullock 


* Or, i making a special vow 


3. or a sacrifice: more precisely ‘a sacrifice of requital’ or 
peace-offering (see Lev. iii); the burnt-offering and the peace- 
offering were, in the earlier period at least, the two prevailing 
types of animal sacrifice. 

a sweet savour unto the LORD. See note on Ley. i. 9, p. 4o. 

4 f. When the victim is a lamb or a kid (verse 11), the accom- 
panying cereal-offering is to consist of 4 ephah (about 7 pints) 
of fine flour mixed with } hin (rather less than g pints) of olive 
oil. This is also the quantity of wine prescribed for the accom- 
panying drink-offering. It is remarkable that the Pentateuch 
legislation contains no reference to the details of the ritual of the 
drink-offering. According to Ben Sira, crea 180 B.c., the wine 
was poured out at the base of the altar of burnt-offering 
(Ecelus. 1. 15). | 

6-10. When the victim is a ram the quantities are to be 
increased to 3%, ephah (about 14 pints) of flour and $ hin (under 
4 pints) of oiland wine ; with a bullock they are further increased 
to ;; ephah (ctvca 1} pecks) and 4 hin (say 3 quarts) respectively. 
For these equations with our measures see the writer's art. 
‘Weights and Measures’ in Hastings’s DB., iv, 910-3. 


NUMBERS 15. 10-19. P 273 


a meal offering of three tenth parts of az ephah of fine 
flour mingled with half an hin of oil. And thou shalt 
offer for the drink offering half an hin of wine, for an 
offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lorp. 
‘Thus shall it be done for each bullock, or for each ram, 
or for each of the he-lambs, or of the kids. According 
to the number that ye shall prepare, so shall ye do to 
every one according to their number. All that are home- 
born shall do these things after this manner, in offering 
an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the 
Lorp. And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whoso- 
ever be among you throughout your generations, and 
will offer an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto 
the Lorn; as ye do, so he shall do. For the assembly, 
there shall be one statute for you, and for the stranger 
that sojourneth zez¢h you, a statute for ever throughout 
your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be 
before the Lorp. One law and one ordinance shall be 
for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you. 
And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come 
into the land whither I bring you, then it shall be, that, 
when ye eat of the bread of the land, ye shall offer up an 





15 f. ‘One of the many passages in the later laws that assert 
the identity in respect of civil, moral, and religious rights and 
duties of the Jews and of the gétm’ (Gray). In the pre-exilic 
period the gér or sojourner (R.V. stranger) was admitted only to 
a restricted civil and religious status, but in P the term has almost, 
if not altogether, become equivalent to ‘ proselyte.’ 


(2) 17-21. The contribution of the Aallah or prime-cake, as it 
may be called. When settled in Canaan the Hebrews are enjoined 
to present to Yahweh a cake prepared from the first meal of the 
year; such at least seems to be intended by this not very 
explicit law. 

19. an heave offering: Heb. /érumah, ‘a contribution,’ 
“oblation,’ or the like (see note on Lev. vii. 14). 


a 


Io 


16 






274 -NUMBERS 15. 20-24. . 


20 heave offering unto the Lorp. Of the fthibcehip0ui 


@dough ye shall offer up a cake for an heave offering: 
as ye do the heave offering of the threshing-floor, so shall — 


ar ye heave it. Of the first of your dough ye shall give unto — 


the Loxp an heave offering throughout your generations. 


22 And when ye shall err, and not observe all these com- — 


mandments, which the Lorp hath spoken unto Moses, — 


a3 even all that the Lorp hath commanded you by the 

hand of Moses, from the day that the Lorp gave com- 

mandment, and onward throughout your generations ; 

a4 then it shall be, if it be done » unwittingly, without ae 
® Or, coarse meal > Or, inerror — 





"20. of your dough: margin ‘coarse meal, others ‘kneading 
trough.’ In any case, since barley ripened before wheat (Ruth i. 
22, ii. 23), the cake would be of barley meal. 


(3) 22-31. A law of the sin-offering parallel to and nteptedall 
of Lev. iv. 1-v. 13. The differences between the two laws are 
sufficiently striking. Here only two cases are distinguished, the 
sin-offering of the congregation and that of an individual; in 
Lev. iv f. we have four carefully graded classes of offenders (see 
pp. 47 ff.). In the latter section the victims are likewise graded 
according to the theocratic rank of the offerer; here a yearling 
she-goat is the victim for all individual offenders, while no pro- 
vision is made for the case of the very poor, as is done in Lev. v. 
7-13. Other differences will be pointed out in the notes. wi 

As regards the relation between the two laws, the harmonistic 
view that Lev. iv f. deals with sins of commission, while this 
section refers only to sins of omission, must be set aside, as incon- 
sistent with the plain prima facie reading of verses 24 and 29. It 
is greatly more probable that we have here a law of the sin-_ 
offering older and less fully developed than the law of Ley. iv. 
1-35, V. 7-13, and due to a different circle of priestly legislators. 
(For a specific indication of the comparatively late date of Lev. i iv 
see the note on the two altars, pp. 49 f. above). 

22-26. The sin-offering for unintentional sin on the part of the 
congregation as a whole. 

24. if it be done unwittingly: as opposed to sins committed 
‘with an high hand’ (verse go), i.¢. in conscious and 
defiance of the will of God (see on Lev. iv. 2). Here sins of 
commission are as clearly contemplated as in the parallel ‘Passage 
just cited. 


———— Se —— ee 


NUMBERS 15. 25-30. P 275 


_ knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation 
shall offer one young bullock for a burnt offering, for 
a sweet savour unto the Lorp, with the meal offering 
thereof, and the drink offering thereof, according to the 
ordinance, and-one he-goat for a sin offering. And the 
priest shall make atonement for ail the congregation of 
the children of Israel, and they shall be forgiven ; for it 
was an error, and they have brought their oblation, an 
offering made by fire unto the Lorp, and their. sin 
offering before the Lorp, for their error: and all the 
congregation of the children of Israel shall be forgiven, 
and the stranger that sojourneth among them; for in 
respect of all the people it was done unwittingly. And if 
one person sin unwittingly, then he shall offer a she-goat 
of the first year for a sin offering. And the priest. shall 
make atonement for the soul that erreth, when he sinneth 
unwittingly, before the Lorp, to make atonement for 
him ; and he shall be forgiven. Ye shall have one law 
for him that doeth aught unwittingly, for him that is 
homeborn among the ‘children of Israel, and for the 
stranger that sojourneth among them. But the soul that 
doeth aught with an high hand, whether he be homeborn 
or a stranger, the same blasphemeth the Lorp ; and that 





one young bullock for a burnt offering. In Lev. iv. 14 no 
burnt-offering is required, and the sin-offering consists of a bullock 
instead of, as here, a he-goat. 

according to the ordinance: a reference to verses 8 f. of 
this chapter. 

25. the priest shall make atonement ...and they shall be 
forgiven. See the discussion of atonement and forgiveness in 
P on pp. 51-3 of this commentary. 

27-28. The sin-offering, for unintentional sin on the part of an 
individual. The victim is uniformly ‘a she-goat of the first year’ 
as compared with the gradation of the victims in the parallel law. 
For verse 29 see note on 15 f. of this chapter, 


T2 


bo 


wn 






246 NUMBERS 15. 31-38. PH 


31 soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he 
hath despised the word of the Lorp, and hath broken 
his commandment ; that soul shall utterly be cut off, his 
iniquity shall be upon him. 

32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilder- 
ness, they found a man gathering sticks upon the sabbath 

33 day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought 
him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congre- 

34 gation, And they put him in ward, because it had not 

35 been declared what should be done to him. And the 
Lorp said unto Moses, The man shall surely be put to 
death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones 

36 without the camp. And all the congregation brought 
him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and 
he died ; as the Lorp commanded Moses. 

37 [| H] And the Lorpspake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them 


30. that soul shall be cut off, &c. See on Lev. vii. 20. For 
the striking fact that, according to the priestly theory of sacrifice, 
no expiation could be made for wilful or intentional offences, see 
the remark on Lev. iv. 2. Cf. Davidson, The Theology of the O.T., 
pp. 316 ff.: ‘ The Old Testament sacrificial system was a system 
of atonement only for the so-called sins of inadvertency.’ 


(4) 32-36. The fate’of the sabbath-breaker. A late ‘midrash’ 
(note the terms of the introductory clause) to illustrate verses go f., 
the sin of the ‘high hand.’ The laws relative to the keeping of 
the Sabbath (Exod. xx. 8 ff., &c.) and the penalty of death attached 
to the breach thereof (ibid., xxxi. 14 f., xxxv. 2) are assumed to be 
known, There is therefore no question of ignorance or inadver- 
tence. The incident recorded in Lev. xxiv. 10-23 is closely 
parallel both in character and treatment. 

34 f. Cf. Lev. xxiv. 12 ff.; the uncertainty was probably in 
regard to the mode of executing the death penalty. With verse 36 
cf, ibid. 23. 


(5) 37-41. The law of the tassels, originally in the Holiness 
Code, as is generally maintained on the ground of the presence in 
it of undoubted characteristics of H (see especially verse 41). To 
each of the four corners of their outer garment—the plaid-shaped 


NUMBERS 15. 39-41. H 277 


® fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their 
generations, and that they put upon the fringe of each 39 
border a cord of blue: and it shall be unto you for a 
fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the 
commandments of the Lorn, and do them ; and that ye 
>go not about after your own heart and your own eyes, 4¢ 
after which ye use to go a whoring: that ye may re- 
member and do all my commandments, and be holy 4: 
unto your God. I am the Lorp your God, which 
brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: 

I am the Lorp your God. 


® Or, éassels in the corners > Heb. spy not out. 


— 





*cloke* of Matt. v. 4o—the Hebrews are enjoined to attach 
a tassel, presumably of white wool, by a blue thread as a reminder 
of their obligation to obedience and holiness unto their God (cf. the 
same law more briefly expressed in Deut. xxii.12). The tassels 
were still worn, a® here prescribed, in N.T. timés (Matt. ix. 20, 
xiv. 36, &c. ; A.V. hem, R.V. border). For the curiously minute 
regulations of Jater Judaism and the mystical meanings assigned 
to the threads and knots, and for the practice of modern Jews, 
see the writer’s art. ‘Fringes’ in Hastings’s DB., ii. 68 ff. 

As to the historical origin of this ‘sign,’ it is now generally 
agreed that a primitive practice}, which regarded the tassels as 
amulets, has been taken over by the Hebrew legislators and filled 
with a beautiful religious significance. The motive here assigned 
for the tassels ‘is rather a religious afterthought, an attempt to 
make a deeply-rooted custom serve a fitting religious purpose’ 
(Gray). There is good reason for believing that the phylacteries 
have a similar history. 

38. fringes in the borders, &c.: render as in the margin, 
‘tassels in the corners’; cf. Deut. xxii. 12, R.V. marg., ‘thou 
shalt make thee twisted threads upon the four borders (corners] 
of thy vesture.’ 

39. it shall be . . . for a fringe: read, as Exod. xiii. 9, 16, _ 
‘for a sign.’ 


1 In plate iib of Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, vol. i, may be 
seen a representation of Asiatics from an Egyptian tomb wearing 
garments having d/ue tassels attached. 






278 NUMBERS 16. 1. Pe Ps 


16 [P#] Now Korah, [P*] the son of Izhar, the son of Ko- 
———————— as 


(d) xvi-xviii. The mutiny of Korah, Dathan, and Abivam, and 
the prerogatives and dues of Priests and Levites. 

The second of these topics (ch. xviii) is intimately connected 
with, and indeed arises immediately out of, the first (note xvii. 12f.), 
or rather out of that portion of the narrative of chs. xvi-xvii, 
which tells of the fatal attempt of a certain Korah and others to 
dispute the priestly prerogative of the tribe of Levi (from P®). 
With this are now combined an earlier and a later story, the — 
former telling of the revolt of Dathan and Abiram against the 
secular leadership of Moses (JE), the latter representing Korah 
and a band of Levites as reclaiming against the exclusive priest- 
hood of Aaron (P%). The analysis of ch. xvi (xvii—syill belong 
entirely to P*) may be represented thus (for verse 32” see notes) : 

JE verses 1> 2% 12-15 25,26 27"-32" 33-34 
Pe ,, 1*(pt.) a°-7 18-24 27° * 35. 41-50 
Lat ae 8-11 16,17 36-40 

The verses assigned to JE, read consecutively, give an almost — 
complete account of a revolt against the authority of Moses, as the 
leader of the Hebrew tribes, headed by Dathan and Abiram of 
the tribe of Reuben. In combining this narrative with the mutiny 
of Korah, the compiler has omitted the grounds on which the 
former revolt was based. These, however, may be gathered from 
the words of the ringleaders in verses 12-14, and’ Moses’ protest in 
15 (see below). After treating Moses’ message with contempt, — 
Dathan and Abiram, with their families and followers, are punished 
by the earth miraculously (verse 3¢) opening and swallowing them 
alive. Deut, xi. 6, it should be noted, makes ‘afc dnly to | 
this strand of the present composite narrative. 4 

P£, on the other hand, save for editorial additions (see rialieden bh), 
is silent as to Dathan and Abiram, but tells the story of an entirely 
distinct mutiny with other leaders, a different motive and a 
different punishment. Here the ringleader is a certain. Korah 
who, at the head of two hundred and fifty leading laymen, calls 
in question the priestly prerogatives of the tribe of Levi, as repre- 
sented by Moses and Aaron, on the ground that every member of 
the theocratic community is ‘holy,’ and therefore equally entitled 
with the favoured tribe to ‘come near unto Yahweh’ in the ritual 
of the sanctuary. tt 6s 

After Korah and his fellow mutineers have been consumed by 
fire, issuing from the Tent of Meeting (xvi. 35), the general body 
of the people murmur at their hard fate and are smitten with 
plague. The latter is stayed by the intervention of Aaron, acting 
under Moses’ direction (xvi. 41 ff.), and the unique position of the 
tribe of Levi is thereafter made clear to all by a Divine ordeal 


NUMBERS 16. 2, 3. P'JH Ps 279 


hath, the son of Levi, with [JE] Dathan and Abiram, the 
sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, 
took men: and they rose up before Moses, [P#] with 
certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty 
princes of the congregation, called to the assembly, men 
of renown: and they assembled themselyes_ together 
against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, 
2 Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation 
® Heb. Jt ts enough for you, 





(xvii, 1-9). The priestly prerogatives of Levi are further confirmed, 
and regulations given on the subject of the sacred dues to be set 
_ apart for the maintenance of both priests and Levites (ch. xviii). 

Into this narrative of Pa later priestly writer has inserted a 
series of additions, the result of which is to alter entirely its 
character and motive. From being a protest on the part of 
a section of the laity against the privileged position of the tribe 
of Levi as a whole, Korah’s rebellion is now represented as a pro- 
test against the exclusive priesthood of Aaron on the part of the 
remanent members of his own tribe. In this later form of the 
Narrative most recent critics find an echo of the disputes, which 
may be assumed to have arisen in the early post-exilic community, 
between the Zadokite priesthood at Jerusalem and the descendants 
of the Levitical priests of the provincial sanctuaries over the 
exclusion of the latter from the higher functions of the priesthood 
(see Ezek. xliv. 9 ff. and the remarks above, p. 200). 


xvi. 1-35. The composite narrative of the rebellion of Korah, 
Dathan,and Abiram. A fourth leader, ‘On, the son of Peleth,’ is 
named in the opening verse, but not elsewhere in the sequel 
(cf. Deut. xi. 6). Read ‘Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, 
the son of Pallu, the son of Reuben,’ as generally adopted on the 
basis of xxvi. 8 f. 

i. Now Korah...took men. Here too the text is corrupt; 
read probably, ‘ Now there rose up Korah,’ &c. Korah’s descent 
from Levi is most probably due to P’. From the tenor of the 
narrative of P®, as summarized above, it is more probable that 
Korah was there represented as a layman, than that a Levite 
should be found reclaiming against the privileges of his own tribe. 
Some would connect the Korah of P£ with the descendant of Caleb 
mentioned in 1 Chron. ii. 43, and see in the similarity of the two 
names the explanation of the fusion of the two divergent priestly 
traditions, i 

$3. Ye take too much upon you: rather, ‘We have had enough 


nN 


I 


I 


ol ~~? 
~~ sah 


2806 NUMBERS 16. 4-11. Pe Ps ra 


are holy, every one of them, and the Lorp is among 
them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the 


4 assembly of the Lorp? And when Moses heard it, he — 


5 fell upon his face: and he spake unto Korah and unto 
all his company, saying, In the morning the Lorp will 
shew who are his, and who is holy, and ® will cause him 
to come near unto him: even him whom he shall choose 

6 will he cause to come near unto him. This do; take 

7 you censers, Korah, and all his company; and put fire 
therein, and put incense upon them before the Lorp 
to-morrow : and it shall be that the man whom the Lorp 
doth choose, he sa// de holy: ye take too much upon 

g you, ye sons of Levi. {Ps] And Moses said unto Korah, 

9 Hear now, ye sons of Levi: seemeth it but a small thing 
unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you 
from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to 
himself ; to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lorp, 
and to stand before the congregation to minister unto 

o them; and that he hath brought thee near, and all thy 

brethren the sons of Levi with thee? and seek ye the 

priesthood also? Therefore thou and all thy company 
are gathered together against the Lorp: and Aaron, 
® Or, whom he will cause to come near 3 


_ 





of you (cf. Deut. i. 6, ii. 3), ye sons of Levi,’ as now found at the 
end of verse 7, where the words are out of place. Korah and his 
followers claim equal privileges with the tribe of Levi, on the 
ground that every member of the theocratic community is holy in 
virtue of the sanctifying presence of Yahweh in their midst. 
8-11 (P*). Here the mutineers are addressed as exclusively 
‘sons of Levi,’ and as actually in possession of the privileges 
which Korah and his company are represented as demanding in 
verses 3-5 (P®). What is here demanded is the higher prerogative 
of the priesthood (verse 10), which the malcontents assert has been 
wrongfully usurped by Aaron (verse 11). It is against the latter 
alone, not against Moses (as JE), nor against Moses ae Aaron 
(as P®), that the rebellion of PS is directed, ; 


> 





NUMBERS 16. 12-19. PS JE Ps Pe 281 


what is he that ye murmur against him? [JB] And 
Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of 
Ehab: and they said, We will not come up: is it a 
small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a Jand 
flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, 
but thou must needs make thyself also a prince over us? 
Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land flowing 
with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields 
and vineyards: wilt thou *put out the eyes of these 
men? we will not come up. And Moses was very wroth, 
and said unto the Lorp, Respect not thou their offering : 
I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt 
one of them. [P*] And Moses said unto Korah, Be 
thou and all thy congregation before the Lorp, thou, 
and they, and Aaron, to-morrow: and take ye every 
man his censer, and put incense upon them, and bring 
ye before the Lorp every man his censer, two hundred 
and fifty censers; thou also, and Aaron, each his censer. 
[Ps] And they took every man his censer, and put fire 
in them, and laid incense thereon, and stood at the door 
of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. And 
Korah assembled all the congregation against them unto 


2 Heb. bore out. 





12-15 (JE). Dathan and Abiram send a contemptuous reply to 
Moses’ summons, accusing him of misleading the people, of self- 
assumed leadership, and, as may be inferred from verse 15>, of 
using his position for his personal profit. 

14. wilt thou put out the eyes, &c.: so literally, but the words 
are here used metaphorically, ‘wilt thou throw dust in the eyes 
of these men ?’ 


18-24, the continuation of P2’s narrative in verses 3-7. Note 
that the scene of the ordeal is at the entrance to the Tent of 
Meeting (contrast verse 27°, JE). 


43 


o 
on 


19 
















282 NUMBERS 16, 20-27. PERIEPS i, 


the door of the tent of meeting: and the glory of 
l.ord appeared unto all the congregation. — 


20 And the Lorp spake unto Moses and mae Aare 
21 saying, Separate yourselyes from among this congreg 
22 tion, that I may consume them in a moment. And th hey 
fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God. of Kee 
spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be 
23 wroth with all the congregation? And the Lorp spake 
24 unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the congregation, saying, 
Get you up from about the tabernacle of [RB] Korah, 
25 Dathan, and Abiram. [JE] And Moses rose up an 
went unto Dathan and Abiram ; and the elders of Israe 
26 followed him, And he spake unto the congregation, 
saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents.of these wicked 
men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed 
27 in all their sins. [P+] So, they gat them up from ‘the 





19. the glory of the LORD appeared. Compare thea i ilar 
theophany as a prelude to judgement in xiv. to, also ss Soe 
verse 42. 

22. the God of the spirits of all fesh. This phrase, 0 only ete! 
and xxvii. 16, ‘betrays the advanced theological standpoint of P. 
Yahweh is to him far more than the God of Israel; He is the cof 
and only Author of all human life, and, as its Author, capable 
destroying it’ (Gray). A similar advance is reflected in the ‘ita 
that follows, in each ‘the early doctrine of solidarity’ is out 
grown, a position ‘most easily explained if referred to a period 
influenced by Ezekiel’s strong individual (see, e.g., Ezek, xviii, 
XxXxiil).’ 

24. the tabernacle of Korah, wailinas and Abiram. Here 
and in verse 27 we may detect the hand of the compiler, for (1) 
the congregation is not assembled at the tents of the ringleaders 
but at the Tent of Meeting (verse 19), and (2) the word rendered 

‘tabernacle’ (lit. ‘the dwelling’) always in P denotes ‘the 
Dwelling’ of Yahweh, in other words, the Tabernacle. Here, 
therefore, the original reading of P? was undoubtedly, ‘ get you up 
from about the Dwelling of Yahweh,’ and similarly i in 97s the, con- 
tinuation of this verse. 


25-34. The original continuation of 12-15 (JE), with the ex- 
ception just noted, 











NUMBERS 16. 28-34. PERJERJE 283 


tabernacle of |R] Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every 
side : [JE] and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood 

at the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, 
and their little ones. .And Moses said, Hereby ye shall 28 - 
know that the Lorp hath sent me to do all these works ; 
for 7 have not done them of mine own mind. If these men 29 
die the common death of all men, or if they be visited 
after the visitation of all-men; then the Lorp hath not 
sent me. But if the Lorp ? make a new thing, and the 30 
ground open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all 
that appertain unto them, and they go down alive into 
bthe pit ; then ye shall understand that these men have 
despised the Lorp. And it came to pass, as he made 3 
an end of speaking all these words, that the ground _ 
claye asunder that was under them: and the earth 32 
opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their 
households, [R] and all the men that appertained unto 
Korah, and all their goods. [JE] So they, and all that 33 
appertained to them, went down alive into 'the pit: 
and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from 
among the assembly. And all Israel that were round 34 


about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest 
* Heb. create a creation. -> Heb. Sheol. 


27. and stood at the door of their tents: the scene accordingly 
of the impending judgement upon Dathan and Abiram and their 
families (cf. above). 

28 ff. Moses announces a test by which it shall be decided 
whether or not his leadership is self-assumed.. If the ringleaders 
of the mutiny die a natural death, the answer will be in the 
affirmative, and Moses will be proved an impostor; if, on the 
contrary, Yahweh.intervenes with a miracle (lit. ‘creates a 
creation,’ verse 30 margin), and destroys the rebels out of hand, 
Moses’ leadership will be proved to be by Divine appointment, 
and his opponents guilty of wilful contempt of Yahweh, 

32. and all the men, &c. This clause anticipates the proper 
fate of Korah and his band in verse 35, and is due to the com- 
piler’s desire to harmonize the divergent narratives, 


35 


loa) 


3 


37 


38 


39 


40 


?." ean ee re. oe 
vie ae 


284 NUMBERS 16. 35-40. JERS Ps ~ 


the earth swallow us up. [P8] And fire came forth from 
the Lorn, and devoured the two hundred and fifty men 
that offered the incense. ; 
“(P| And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak 
unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up 
the censers out of the burning, and scatter thou the fire 
yonder; for they are holy; even the censers of » these 
sinners against their own ¢lives, and let them be made 
beaten plates for a covering of the altar: for they offered 
them before the Lor», therefore they are holy: and they 
shall be a sign unto the children of Israel. And Eleazar 
the priest took the brasen censers, which they that were 
burnt had offered ; and they beat them out for a covering 
of the altar: to be a memorial unto the children of 


§ (Ch. xvii. 1 in Heb.] > Or, these men who have sinned at 
the cost of their lives © Or, souls 


35. The continuation of 18-24, 27* (P®). In the original Korah 
will have shared the fate of his 250 associates. How the compiler 
conceived the situation it is impossible to say, for he has already 
represented ‘all the men that appertained unto Korah’” as having 
been swallowed up alive (32°). As Kent remarks, ‘the close 
amalgamation of two so fundamentally distinct traditions is almost 
without parallel in the O. T.’ (Beginnings of Heb. History, p. 222). 


36-40 (P’). Eleazar is commanded to collect the 250 brazen 
censers—rather firepans of bronze—to hammer them into plates, 
and to cover therewith the wooden framework of the altar of 
burnt-offering. That the section belongs to P* and not to P® is 
shown (1) by the connexion of verse 40 with verses 9 f., and (2) 
by the fact that according to P# the altar was overlaid with bronze 
when first constructed (Exod. xxvii. 2). The selection of Eleazar 
for this task, as for a similar task in ch. xix, is to be explained by 
the rigid taboo imposed on Aaron as high priest in the matter of 
contact with the dead (see Lev. xvii. rof.). 

37 f. for they are holy; even the censers, &c.: render, with 
a slight textual alteration: ‘for the censers of these men who 
have sinned at the cost of their own lives (so Amer. R.V. marg.) 
are holy,’ i.e. taboo, forfeited to the sanctuary (cf. note on 
Lev. vi. 18). 

40. The standpoint and motive of the secondary additions are 
here expressly stated; the legitimate priesthood is declared to be 








NUMBERS 16. 41-46. Ps Pe 285 


Israel, to the end that no stranger, which is not of the 
seed of Aaron, come near to burn incense before the 
Lorp ; that he be not as Korah, and as his company: 
as the Lorn spake unto him by the hand of Moses, 

[Ps] But on the morrow all the congregation of the 4x 
children of Israel murmured against Moses and against 
Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lorp. 
And it came to pass, when the congregation was as- 42 
sembled against Moses and against Aaron, that they 
looked toward the tent of meeting: and, behold, the 
cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lorp appeared. 
And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent 43 
of meeting. And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, 44 
Get you up from among this congregation, that I may 4; 
consume them in a moment. And they fell upon their 
faces. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take thy censer, 46 
and put fire therein from off the altar, and lay incense 
thereon, and carry it quickly unto the congregation, and 





the exclusive prerogative of Aaron and his ‘seed.’ With the 
signification of ‘ stranger’ as here defined, cf. iii. ro and note. 


41-50 (PS). The people bring a false accusation against Moses 
and Aaron, and are punished by an outbreak of plague, which is 
stayed by the intervention of Aaron. From this ,point to the end 
of ch. xviii we have a continuous extract from P&. 

44, spake unto Moses: add with LXX, ‘and Aaron’; ef, the 
plural address, ‘Get you up,’ &c. 

46 ff. Three points are noteworthy in these verses: (1) the 
use of incense as the medium of expiation or ‘atonement’; probably 
a contrast is intended to the unauthorized use of incense in the 
preceding narrative of P&; (2) the mediatorial activity of Aaron, 
by which his priestly prerogative, previously questioned, is success- 
fully vindicated ; and (3) the conception of the ‘wrath of Yahweh’ 
as an independent agent (46 end), whose power to harm is de- 
feated by the sacred fire ‘from off the altar’ in the hand of the 
sacrosanct person of the priest. ‘The passage is important for the 
understanding of the kapparva [expiation, atonement, see above, 
pp. 51 f.]: the latter is an act of the cultus, by which something 





286 NUMBERS 16. 4717.2) BE 


- 


make atonement for them: for there is wrath gone “out 


47 from the Lorp; the plague is begun. And ‘Aaron took 


as Moses Spake; and ran into the midst of the assembly : 
and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: 
and he put on the incense, and made atonement for the 


48 people. And he stood between the dead and the living ; 
49 and the plague was stayed. Now they that died by the 


plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, be- 


50 sides them that died about the matter of Korah: And 


17 


te 


Aaron returned unto Moses unto the door of the tent of 
meeting: and the plague was stayed. ieee 


« And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
the children of Israel, and take of them rods, one for 
each fathers’ house, of all their princes accordingto pee 


* (Ch. xvii, 16 in Heb.] : 





of the holiness attaching to the sanctuary is set free a peels 
to the person for whose benefit the act is performed.’ (Holzinger, 
Kurser Handkommentar, in loc.) 


xvii. 1-11. The privileged position of Levi among the Hebrew 
tribes is further publicly attested by a unique form of ordeal. By 
Divine instruction Moses deposits in the Tent of Meeting twelve 
rods oy wands representing the twelve secular tribes, with an 


additional rod inscribed with the name of Aaron as head of the 


tribe of Levi. The tribe of Yahweh’s choice—for the purpose of 


the choice, see xvi. 5—is to be signalized by thé miraculous” 


budding of its representative’s rod. Next morning it is found 
that Aaron’s rod alone has budded and brought forth fruit, thus 
confirming the Divine choice of the tribe of Levi for the ministry 
of the wilderness sanctuary. The rod is henceforth to be pre- 
served ‘for a token’ in the Tent of Meeting. For references to 
similar legends of the sprouting of dead wood see Gray’s | and 
Dillmann’s Commentaries. 

2. take of them rods: probably the staves or wands onda! 
carried by the princes as the symbol of their rank, ef. xxi, 18, 
Gen. xlix. To. 

one for each fathers’ house: ‘ fathers’ house’ or sept here 
exceptionally for ‘tribe,’ see on i. 2. For the names of the 
heads of the secular tribes see chs, i-ii and elsewhere. © 





¢ 


—_— ee Oe 


NUMBERS 17. 3-10. Ps 287 


fathers’ houses, twelve rods ; write thou every man’s name 


upon his rod. And thou shalt write Aaron’s name upon 3 


the rod of Levi: for there shall be one rod for each head 


of their fathers’ houses. And thou shalt lay them up in 4 


the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet 


with you. And it shall come to pass, that the man whom 5 


I shall choose, his rod shall bud: and I will make to 
cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, 


which they murmur against you. And Moses spake unto 6 


the children of Israel, and all their princes gave him rods, 
for each prince one, according to their fathers’ houses, 
even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their 


rods. And Moses laid up the rods before the Lorp in 7 
the tent of the testimony. And it came to pass on thé 8 


morrow, that Moses went into the tent of the testimony ; 
and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was 
budded, and put forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and 
bare ripe almonds. And Moses brought out all the rods 
from before the Lorp unto all the children of Israel: 
and they looked, and took every man his rod. And the 
Lorp said unto Moses, Put back the rod of Aaron before 
the testimony, to be kept for a token against the children 
of rebellion; that thou mayest make an end of their 





3. What is the total number of the rods, twelve or thirteen? 
The text has been understood both ways, but P’s division of 
the ‘congregation’ into twelve secular tribes requires that Levi 
should be reckoned as a thirteenth tribe, and Aaron’s wand, 
consequently, as a thirteenth ‘rod.’ 

4, in the tent of méeting before the testimony: i.e. before 
the ark, as explained in the note on Lev. xvi. 13; ¢f. ‘before 
Yahweh,’ verse 7. 

9. The rods are publicly exhibited for the purpose expressed in 
verse 5), 

10. Aaron’s rod is to be preserved, like the pot of manna 
(Exod. xvi. 33 f.), ‘before,’ but not zwzthi, the ark, as in the later 
Rabbinic tradition reproduced in Heb. ix. 4. 


- 


° 


a 


288 NUMBERS 17, u— 






























11 murmurings against me, that they ¢ 

Moses: as the Lorp commanded hs 

12 And the children of Israel spake Bai es 

Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all dor 

13 Every one that cometh near, that cometh near un 0 

tabernacle of the Lorp, *dieth: shall we Perish 
of us? athe 

18 And the Lorp said unto Aaron, Thou and thy. 
and thy fathers’ house with thee shall bear the i iniquity 

the sanctuary; and thou and thy. sons with thee sh 
bear the iniquity of your priesthood. And hx! brethr 

® Or, shall die a 


12f. These verses belong rather to the following chapter, 
since they contain the people’s confession that unrestricted ac 
to ‘the Dwelling of Yahweh’ is fatal, which leads to a re 
appointment of the tribe of Levi as the ca and mi 
of the sanctuary. bbodtoil 


xviii, 1-7. In the introductory note to ch. iii (p.: 199), it w 
pointed out that although some scholars adopt what is, it m 
confessed, the prima facie view of this section, that the autl 
the history of Israel’s theocratic institutions is here for thi 
time introducing the Levites as a second order in the hier 
it is on the whole more probable that he embraces the oppo: 
afforded by the mutiny of Korah to reinforce the Divine choic 
Levi recorded in ch. iii. 5-13, and to introduce the delimitation f 
the respective duties of priests and Levites. - ° 

1. thy fathers’ house: here the whole ‘tribe of Levi’ (cf. \ 
2), exclusive of the priests (‘thou and thy sons’). 

shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary .. . the 
of your priesthood. In these expressions to ‘bear the i 
or rather ‘the guilt,’ has a technical sense peculiar to 
‘means to bear the consequences of ritual error in all that co’ 
the approach to God in the sanctuary. Everything pertain 
the Deity—His Dwelling, His altar, His ‘ holy things’—is chai 
with a dangerous ‘spiritual electricity,’ and the priests 
Levites are, to continue the metaphor, to act as conduc 
Yahweh’s death- dealing holiness. In other words, the : 
dangers which the unconsecrated laity necessarily incur, 
approach to Yahweh in worship are, so to say, drawn ¢ 
consecrated ministers of the sanctuary (cf. verse 
means the fate contemplated in xvii. 13 is averted. i 


NUMBERS 18. 3-7, Ps 289 


also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou 
near with thee, that they may be 2joined unto thee, and 
minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee 
shall be before the tent of the testimony. And they 3 
shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the Tent: 
only they shall not come nigh unto the vessels of the 
sanctuary and unto the altar, that they die not, neither 
“they, nor ye. And they shall be joined unto thee, and 4 
keep the charge of the tent of meeting, for all the service 
of the Tent: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto 
you. And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, 5 
and the charge of the altar: that there be wrath no more 
upon the children of Israel. And I, behold, I have 6 
taken your brethren the Levites from among the children 
of Israel: to you they are a gift, given unto the Lorp, 
to do the service of the tent of meeting. And thou and 7 
thy sons with thee shall keep your priesthood for every 

. thing of the altar, and for that within the veil; and ye 

4 See Gen, xxix, 34. 


2. that they may be joined unto thee. The verb is better 
taken as reflexive, ‘that they may join themselves unto thee.’ 
As in Gen, xxix. 34, there is a play upon the verb (/avah), here 
rendered ‘join,’ from which the name Levi is supposed to be 
derived. For other and more probable, but still uncertain, 
etymologies see the art. ‘Levi’ in the Bible Dictionaries. 

and minister unto thee: but thou, &c. The two clauses 
must be read together: ‘ unto thee, whilst thou and thy sons are 
before the tent,’ &c. The Levites are to assist the priests when 
the latter are engaged in the duties of the sanctuary. With the 
following injunctions cf. those of iii. 6-8, iv. 15, 17 ff. 

6. to you they are a gift, given unto the LORD. For this idea 
of the Levites as a gift of the people to Yahweh, and as a gift by 
Him in turn to the priests, see iii. 9, viii. 16, 19. P consistently 
represents even the inferior position of the Levites, as compared 
with the priests, as one of great privilege and honour. 

7. and for that within the veil. Elsewherein P this expression 
denotes the most holy place or inner sanctuary of the Dwelling, 
as opposed to the outer sanctuary or holy place ‘ without the veil ’ 


U 




























or 
290 NUMBERS 18. 8. * ; 


‘shall serve: I give you the priesthood as a servic 
gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall ibs 
death. i of as 


g And the Lorp spake unto Aaron, And I, a 


(see Exod. xxvi. 31-35). Unless, therefore, we have a copyist’s 
slip for ‘within the screen’ (see ibid., verse 36f.), P Bone contem- 
plates the entrance of the ordinary priests into the most he 
place. Contrast Lev. xvi. which limits the right of entry into t 
latter to the high priest. od? vs 
the stranger is here any one, even a Levite, who is not 
a priest, while in verse 4 it designates any ee or non-Levite; 
ef. further the note on Lev. xxii. ro, xh Dae 


8-32. Having defined anew the relative daties of the tw 
orders of the hierarchy, the legislator proceeds to deal with 
provision to be made for their support, viz. (1) the priests’ « 
verses 8-20; (2) the general tithe for the Levites, 2t-24, 
(3) a special tithe to be paid by the latter to the priests, 25 
The subject of the priestly revenues (cf. p. 68 above) _ is one 
great importance for the history of the priesthood. 
with such early notices as Judges xvii. 10; 1 Sam, ii. 12-17, ¥ 
may trace the gradual formulation and i increasing amount of ‘whi 
was due to the priest from the people’ (see Cent. Bible, ; 
p. 45f.), through the Deuteronomic and Priestly Codes to the 
relative treatises of the Mishnah. Convenient summaries of th ic 
data of the Pentateuch Codes will be found in C-H. Hex. i. 240 ff 
252f., under the rubrics ‘sacred dues,’ and ‘the revenues of 
clergy,? and in Kent, Isvael’s Laws and Legal Precedents, pp. Be 
Professor Buchanan Gray has given special attention to the 'sub- 
ject in his Commentary on Numbers, pp. 221-41. For an authori- 
tative study of the revenues of the Jewish hierarchy in N.T. tim 
finally, see Schiirer’s Geschichte d. jitd. Volkes, third edition, ii. 243 
(Eng. trans. of earlier edition, The Jewish People, &c., Div. 
i, 230 ff.). Todor 

The position of Num. xviii. 8 ff. in the historical develop 
may be given in Buchanan Gray’s words (Numbers, p. 
dues here assigned to the tribe of Levi are im ore 
valuable than those which are assigned, by direct statement ¢ 
implication, to the Levites in Deuteronomy or any pre-exil 
ature ; and considerably more valuable than those >d, 


ol 


priests, by Ezekiel. They are less valuable than those r ‘ 
the Mishnah, and in one respect, than those required in Lev. xxvii. 
30-33 (P*).” ia tak 


NUMBERS 18. 9-11. PS 291 


I have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings, 
even all the hallowed things of the children of Israel, 
unto thee have I given them * by reason of the anointing, 


and to thy sons, as a due for ever. This shall be thine 9 


of the most holy things, zeserved from the fire: every 
oblation of theirs, even every meal offering of theirs, 
and every sin offering of theirs, and every guilt offering 
of theirs, which they shall render unto me, shall be most 
holy for thee and for thy sons. As the most holy things 
shalt thou eat thereof: every male shall eat thereof; it 
shall be holy unto thee. And this is thine; the heave 
offering of their gift, even all the wave offerings of the 
children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to 
* Or, for a portion 





8-20. The priests’ dues (cf. Deut. xviii. 1-8 ; Ezek. xliv. 28 ff. ; 
Ley, vi. 16-18, vii. 6-9, 31-33, &c.). After a general character- 
ization of the nature of the dues in verse 8, the ‘author proceeds 
to specify them in detail. 

8. I have given thee the charge, &c. The whole verse 
requires re-translation thus: ‘I have given thee that which is 
reserved (from the altar) of the contributions made to me, even 
all the sacred gifts (lit. ‘holy things’) of the children of Israel, 
to thee have I given them for a portion (so margin), and to thy 
sons, as a perpetual due.’ For the rendering ‘contributions’ see 
on Lev. vii. 14, and for the marginal ‘ portion’ see on Lev. vii. 35. 

9. the most holy things: for the distinction between ‘holy’ 
and ‘most holy’ things, see the note on Lev. ii.3. For the offer- 
ings here specified, and the share of each assigned to the priest, 
see Lev. ii-v. The peace-offering is dealt with in verse 11; no 
reference is made to the burnt-offering or holocaust, since no part 
of it was ‘reserved from the fire.” 

10. As the most holy things: an evident mistranslation, 
comparing a thing with itself; render, ‘In a most holy place,” i.e. 
as indicated in Lev. vi. 16, 26, ‘in the court of the tent of meeting’ 
—in actual practice, in the priests’ chambers of the temple (so 
Ezek. xlii. 13). 

11. the heave offering (‘ contribution,’ as above) of their gift, 
even all the wave offerings: the former is the general category, 
the latter a special form of ‘contribution,’ for which see Lev. 
vii, 30. 

U2 


293 NUMBERS 18. ra-15. 8 


























thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, as a due for 
ever : every one that is clean in thy house shall eat there- 
12 of. All the *best of the oil, and all the *best of 
vintage, and of the corn, the firstfruits of them which 
they give unto the Lorp, to thee have I given them. 
13 The firstripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they 
bring unto the Lorp, shall be thine ; every one that is 
14 clean in thy house shall eat thereof. Every thing de- 
15 voted in Israel shall be thine. Every thing that openeth — 
the womb, of all flesh which they offer unto the Lorp, 


® Heb. fat. he 





12. the firstfruits of them: the original term (7é’shith) must 
here denote the first in quality ; render, ‘the choicest of them,’ 
cf. Exod. xxiii. 19, ‘the choicest of the firstfruits.’ The oldest 
extant Phoenician inscription is found on a bowl which claims to 
be ‘of the first quality (ré’shith) of bronze.’ 

13. The firstripe fruits: Heb. bikkivim, usually rendered 
‘firstfruits.’ This form of sacred due has a place in all the codes, 
see Exod. xxxiv. 26 (J), xxiii. 19 (E); Deut. xviii. 4, and especially 
xxvi. 1-11. For the widespread religious custom of dedicating to 
the deity a portion of the new produce of the year as at once 
a thankoffering for, and a dedication of, the whole, and for 
a discussion of the terms 7é’shith and bikktirim, both rendered 
firstfruits in our EVV, see Gray's excursus, Numbers, pp. 225-9. 

14. Every thing devoted : see note on Lev. xxvii. 28. 


15-18. The law regarding the disposal of firstborn (male) 
children and the firstlings of domestic animals. Put briefly, the 
law requires that the firstborn of men, and of animals not received 
as sacrificial victims, shall be redeemed, the redemption price 
falling to the priests, while those of the sacrificial animals (see p. 
36) are to be sacrificed, the priests receiving the flesh. F 
a more detailed comparison than is possible here of P’s prescrip- 
tions with those of the older legislation, e. g. Exod. xiii. 11-16, 
xxxiv. Ig f, (both J), xxii. 29 f. (E), and especially with Deut. xv. 
19-23, the larger commentaries must be consulted. For the 
whole subject see W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem.?, Additional Note E, 
Pp- 458-65. ; 

15. The general terms employed here seem at first sight to 
include both male and female firstborn, but the words are probably 
to be read in the light of the express limitation to males found 


NUMBERS 18. 16-19. Pe 293 


both of man and beast, shall be thine: nevertheless the 
firstborn of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the first- 
ling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem. *And those 
that are to be redeemed of them from a month old shalt 
thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money 
of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary (the same 
is twenty gerahs). But the firstling of an ox, or the first- 
ling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not 
redeem ; they are holy: thou shalt sprinkle their blood 
upon the altar, and shalt burn their fat for an offering 
made by fire, for a sweet savour unto the Lorp. And 
the flesh of them shall be thine, as the wave breast and 
as the right thigh, it shall be thine. All the heave offer- 
ings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer 
unto the Lorp, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy 
daughters with thee, as a due for ever: it is a covenant 
of salt for ever before the Lorp unto thee and to thy seed 


® Or, And as to their redemption money, from a month old 
shalt thou redeem them 





the older codes (see references in preceding note, and cf. the limita- 
tion in iii. 40-51 (P*), above). 

16. interrupts the connexion between 15 and 17, and appears 
to be a gloss based on iii. 43, 47, where see notes, and referring 
only to ‘the firstborn of man.’ Render: ‘And as regards his 
redemption-price,’ &c. For the shekel of the sanctuary see on 
Lev. v. 15. 

17 f. The firstlings of sacrificial animals are to be treated so 
far as peace-offerings, see Lev. vii. 28-34, but the flesh, instead of 
furnishing the usual sacrificial meal for the offerer and his family, 
becomes the perquisite of the priests. 

19. it is a covenant of salt for ever: i.e. a covenant that is 
irrevocable and valid in perpetuity (cf. 2 Chron. xiii. 5). From the 
use of salt as a preservative against decay, it was natural that 
it should become a symbol of permanence and even of life as 
opposed to decay and death, as it has become ‘in the world’s 
symbolism.’ For another, and more usual, derivation of the 
metaphor of the text, see Gray im Joc. or the writer’s art. ‘Salt’ 
in Hastings’s DB. (1909). Cf. note on Lev. ii. 13. 


16 


ce 


a 


294 NUMBERS 18, 40-23, 


20 with thee. And the Lorp said unto Aaron, Th 
have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou 
any portion among them: I am thy saps — 
inheritance among the children of Israel. — 

21. And unto the children of Levi, behold, I mete st nn 
all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return | or 
their service which they serve, even the service of the 

22 tent of meeting. And henceforth the children of Israel 
shall not come nigh the tent of meeting, lest they bear 

23 sin, and die. But the Levites shall do the service of 
tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity: it 
shall be a statute for ever throughout your ‘generations, 


































20. The priests, as represented by Aaron, are to have no 
landed possessions in Canaan, for Yahweh Himself is their portio: 
and inheritance, an idea frequently expressed in Deut. (e.g. x. g 9, 
xii. 12, xviii. 2, &c.). The same applies to the subordinate - 
Levites, verses 23 f. below. In Deut., however, the terms 
and Levites are coextensive, as explained’ on p. 199 f. 
Deut. and P# are here in conflict with Num. xxxv, 1-8 (en, 
which see the introductory note there. 


at-24, The Levites are to receive ‘all the tithe in Israel’ 
their support in return for their service at the sanctuary. The 
tithe, or tenth part, ‘as a rate of taxation, secular or religious? 
with special reference to agricultural produce, was familiar t 
many peoples of antiquity, Egyptians, Greeks, &c. (see Moc 
art. ‘Tithes’ in EBr. iv.). Both in its sacred and its secular 
the tithe finds-early attestation in the O.T, apart from the | = 
codes, e.g. Amos iv. 4; Gen. xxviii. 22 (E), and 1 Sam. viii. 15, 17) 
the royal tithe: The complicated history of the nature and 
destination of the religious tithes—in later times it was usual to > 
distinguish a first, second, and third tithe—has been carefully 
investigated by Driver in his Comm. on Deuteronomy, pp. 166-73, 
which see also for a discussion of the relation of P’s legislation o r 
the application of the tithe .to that of Deuteronomy (xiv, 22 
XXvi. 12-15). In Lev. xxviii, 30-33, a later priestly writer a 
the tithe of cattle to the cereal tithe of P®, ; » HG 

22. lest they bear sin, and die: i.e. lest they ingens the 
fatal consequences of unguarded approach to the sanetuar, 
explained in the notes on verse 1 ; the expression is 
with reference to a sin of omission. 


NUMBERS 618. 24-32. Ps 295 


and among the children of Israel they shall have no 
inheritance. For the tithe of the children of Israel, 
which they offer as an heave offering unto the Lorp, 
I have given to the Levites for an inheritance: therefore 
I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel 
they shall have no inheritance. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Moreover 
thou shalt speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, 
When ye take of the children of Israel the tithe which 
I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye 
shall offer up an heave offering of it for the Lorp, a tithe 
of the tithe. And your heave offering shall be reckoned 
unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshing- 
floor, and as the fulness of the winepress. Thus ye also 
shall offer an heave offering unto the Lorp of all your 
tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel; and 
thereof ye shall give the Lorp’s heave offering to Aaron 
the priest. Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave 
offering of the Lorp, of all the ® best thereof, even the 
hallowed part thereof out of it. Therefore thou shalt 
say unto them, When ye heave the “best thereof from 
it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the in- 
crease of the threshing-floor, and as the increase of the 
winepress. And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and 
your households: for it is your reward in return for your 
service in the tent of meeting. And ye shall bear no sin 

2 Heb. fat. 





25-32. Of the tithe paid by the people to the Levites the latter 
in their turn are to pay over the tenth part—‘a tithe of the tithe’ 
(verse 26)—to the priests. 

30. unto the Levites: read with Vulgate, ‘unto you’ and 
render: ‘it (the remainder of the general tithe) shall be counted 
unto you as the (tithed) increase of the threshing-floor,’ &c. is 
counted to the lay Israelites, i.e. it will now be available for the 
maintenance of the Levites and their families. 


26 


27 


28 


a 


30 


31 


32 


Z Me 
296 NUMBERS 19.1. P&P ; 7 


by reason of it, when ye have heaved from it the ® best 

thereof: and ye shall not profane the holy things of the 

children of Israel, » that ye die not. | 
| 


! 


19 [P] And the Lorp spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, 
® Heb. fat. > Or, neither shall ye die 


(e) xix. The Red Heifer, or the ritual of purification from unclean- 
ness caused by contact with the dead. 

This chapter, which has no connexion with those that precede 
and follow it, consists of two distinct sections: (1) verses I-13, 
containing directions for the preparation of a special cathartic in 
the shape of the ashes of a red cow (1-10), and for its use in cases 
of ceremonial defilement through contact with a dead body (12-13); 
(2) verses 14-22, more detailed instructions for its use in a variety 
of similar cases due to the defiling power of the dead. While 
there can be no question that both sections belong to the priestly 
legislation, it is evident, on several grounds, that they are the 
product of different hands, and that neither had a place in the 
groundwork of the Priests’ Code (P®). 

The primitive conceptions underlying the rite of purification, 
here described, have been briefly set forth in the introduction to 
the section of Leviticus devoted to the laws of uncleanness and 
purification, where this chapter might have been expected to find 
a place (see above, pp. 81 ff.). Among the Hebrews, as among 
other peoples of the ancient and modern world, it is found that 
‘a chief centre or ‘“‘nidus’’ of impurity is childbirth ; but still more 
dangerously impure is its counterpart, death and all the phenomena 
of death’ (Farnell). So powerful, indeed, was the uncleanness 
produced by contact with, and even by proximity to, a dead body 
that, according to this chapter at least, the ordinary medium of 
purification, water, was insufficient and had to be strengthened by 
the addition, along with other ingredients, of the ashes of a sacro- 
sanct animal. Most of the questions, historical and exegetical, 
raised by this chapter have been touched upon by the present ~ 
writer in his art. ‘Red Heifer’ in Hastings’s DB., iv. 207 ff. To 
the literature there given should now be added Buchanan Gray’s 
Commentary (valuable for the parallels from other religions) ; 
Bewer, Journ. of Bib. Lit. xxiv. (1905) 41 ff. (the rite was 
originally a sacrifice to the spirits of the dead); H. P. Smith, 
ibid, xxvii. (1908) 153 ff., and Amer. Journ. of Theol. xiii. (1909) 
207-28 (a history of the extraordinarily varied interpretations 
of this chapter); Lods, La Croyance de la Vie Future, i. 175 ff, 
‘L’impureté des morts,’ 


NUMBERS 19. 2-6. P 297 


saying, This is the statute of the law which the Lorp 2 
hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of 
Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer # without spot, 
wherein is no blemish, avd upon which never came yoke: 
and ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, and he 3 
shall bring her forth without the camp, and one shall 
slay her before his face: and Eleazar the priest shall 4 
take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her 
blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven 
times: and one shall burn the heifer in his sight ; her 5 
skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall 
he burn: and the priest shall take cedar wood, and 6 
hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the 
2 Or, perfect 


e 





2. a red heifer: more precisely ‘a red (i.e, reddish brown), 
cow.’ The red colour is usually explained as suggesting blood, 
the seat of life, but is more probably due to association with fire 
as a powerful purifying agent (cf. xxxi. 23), just as at the festival 
of the Robigalia the Romans sacrificed red whelps as ‘a symbol 
of the scorching heat of the sun which destroyed the crops’ 
(Wissowa). Those who find in the rite of the red cow a survival 
of an ancient sacrifice for the dead point to the red victims 
sacrificed by the Greeks to their underground deities. The 
nearest analogies to the sex of the red cow is the ewe-lamb 
of Lev. xiv. 10, which, however, was a true sacrifice, and the 
heifer—not, as here, a cow—of the purgation rite, Deut. xxi. 1-9. 
Both heifer and cow had to be ‘virgin’ animals, in the sense that 
they had not been used by man for secular purposes (cf. the same 
condition in r Sam. vi. 7). 

4. toward the front of the tent of meeting. The cow is to be 
slain—but not by the priest—to the east of the camp. According 
_ tothe Mishnah (Parah [the Cow], iii. 6, Eng. trans. in Barclay, The 
’ Talmud, p. 304), the place in later times was the Mount of Olives. 
The rite described in this and the following verses has, besides 
its quasi-sacrificial character, several unique features, such as the 
subordinate part played by the priest, the sprinkling of the blood 
from a distance, and especially the burning of the blood. 

6. cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet. For these see the 
note on Lev. xiv. 4, in another specimen of primitive ritual. 
Here, as there, the first two ingredients were added in virtue 


























298 NUMBERS 19. hie e 


~r 


burning of the heifer. Then the priest spaiioe 
clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and, af al 
ward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be 
8 unclean until the even. And he that burneth her shall - 
wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, 
9 and shall be unclean until the even. And a man that is 
clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay — 
them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall 
be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for — 
10 a water of “separation: it is a sin offering, And he that 
gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes 
and be unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the 
children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth 


® Or, impurity pe? 





of their aromatic properties, in this case to increase ° the efficacy 
the ashes as a cathartic. The ‘holy water’ of the Babylo: ia 
prepared by the addition of cedar, cypress, tamarisk, ani 
fragrant woods, offers an analogy. 

7 f. These verses supply an illuminating illustration of 
primitive conception of the quasi-physical nature of holin 
of its close connexion with uncleanness. The priest and 
that slew and burned the cow have become ceremonially unc 
through contact with a thing most holy or ‘taboo.’ To pre 
the spread of the fatal contagion of holiness to others, they m 
wash both their persons and their garments. See the af on 
Lev. vi. 11, 27, and on the still closer parallels, Lev. xvi. 23 ff, - 

9. for a water of separation: render with margin, fa twat 
of impurity,’ or better, with Amer. R.V., ‘a water for pt 
i.e. a water for the removal of ceremonial ancleanness, an 
expression peculiar to this chapter and xxxi. 23. cial 

it is a sin offering (cf, verse 17). This rendering i is imp : 
sible for the simple reason that the red cow was not a sin-offe 
or indeed a sacrifice of any kind; for P there is only one legitin 
place of sacrifice, the altar in the court of the tabernacle, and th 
cow was slaughtered and burnt elsewhere (verse a). Ren 
‘it is a medium of purification,’ or ‘un-sin-ment,’ as advo: 
p. 48; cf. the note on Num, viii. 7, where the original | 
is rendered ‘expiation’ oY. the Revisers, and the 
cognate verb in verses 12 f., 19 f. below. 


NUMBERS 19, 11-16. P 299 


among them, for a statute for ever. He that toucheth 
the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days; 
the same shall purify himself therewith on the third day, 
#and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he 
purify not himself the third day, >then the seventh day 
he shall not be clean. Whosoever toucheth the dead 
body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, 
defileth the tabernacle of the Lorp; and that soul shall 
be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation 
was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean ; his 
uncleanness is yet upon him. This is the law when 
aman dieth in a tent: every one that cometh into the 
tent, and every one that is in the tent, shall be unclean 
seven days. And every open vessel, which hath no 
covering bound upon it, is unclean. And whosoever 
® Or, and on the seventh day, so shall he be clean > Or, and 


11-13. The specific purpose for which this unique ‘medium of 
purification’ is to be used, the removal of uncleanness caused by 
touching a dead body, A parallel to this use of ashes is provided 
by the Roman custom, at the festival of the Fordicidia, of purifying 
the men and animals on the farm with the ashes of calves taken 
from pregnant cows (Bailey, The Religion of Ancient Rome, p. 62). 
| 12. the same shal! purify himself: lit. ‘shall un-sin himself,’ 
see above, also the note on Lev. iv. 3. The punctuation and 
renderings of the margin are to be preferred to those of the text. 

13. defileth the tabernacle of the LORD: see on Lev. xv. 31; 
cf. verse 20 below. 

14-22, A section from another hand, as shown by certain 
variations in the phraseology, giving a more detailed application 
of the general principles laid down in verses 11-13, and more 
precise instructions for the mode of purification. 

15. Every open vessel and its contents are unclean because the 
latter are exposed to the miasma of impurity. This idea lies at 
the basis of the widespread custom of pouring out the contents of 
vessels containing water and milk immediately a death occurs in 
a house (see Bender, Jewish Quart. Rev. vii. 106 ff., and Sébillot, 
Le Paganisme contemporain, p. 173 f., both of whom refer to the 
Jewish belief that this is done to the water because the angel 
of death has washed therewith the blood from his sword). 


If 


12 


= 


3 


17 


- 18 


19 


20 


2 


22 































300 NUMBERS 19. 17-22, PB 


> pe 

in the open field toucheth one that is slain with a sword, 
or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be 
unclean seven days. And for the unclean they shal! 
take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering, an 
®running water shall be put thereto in a vessel: and 
a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the wate: 
and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, 
and upon the persons that were there, and upon him > 
that touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the 
grave: and the clean person shall sprinkle upon the un- 
clean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on 
the seventh day he shall purify him ; and he shall wash — 
his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be 
clean at even. But the man that shall be unclean, and 
shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from — 
the midst of the assembly, because he hath defiled the 
sanctuary of the Lorp: the water of separation hath not 
been sprinkled upon him ; he is unclean. And it shall 
be a perpetual statute unto them: and he that sprinkleth 
the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he 
that toucheth the water of separation shall fa unclean 
until even. And whatsoever the unclean person touche 

® Heb. diving. 





17-19, instructions for the preparation of the ‘water Tor 
impurity’ and the mode of its application. Some of the ashes of 
the red cow are to be added to ‘ living’ water (see on Lev. xiv.5); 
a clean person then takes a bunch of hyssop or marjoram, and 
sprinkles with the mixture the persons and things defiled. — ; 

21. The ‘water for impurity’ is a means of restoring the — 
unclean to ceremonial holiness because it is itself holy (taboo) ; 
therefore the clean person who handles it becomes, as in the 
cases mentioned above (verses 7 ff.), likewise taboo, that is 
infected by the contagion of holiness, and consequently’ unclean. 
Similarly, in later times, whoever handled a roll of the sacred — 
Scriptures became unclean because these ‘defiled the hands’ by 
their holiness. : 

22, on the other hand, illustrates the contagion of Pe aay 


NUMBERS 20.1. PJEP 301 
@ 


shall be unclean ; and the soul that toucheth it shall be 
unclean until even. 


_ [JEP] And the children of Israel, even the whole 20 


which, according to Hag. ii. r2 f., was regarded as even more 
powerful than the contagion of holiness, 

In the rite of ‘ the red heifer’ we have one of the most striking 
examples of the survival within the higher religion of Israel of 
a practice which there is every reason to believe antedates that 
religion itself. Like the goat to Azazel (Lev. xvi. 8 ff.), the tassels 
on the mantle (Num. xv. 37 ff.), and similar survivals, the rite has 
been adopted by the priestly legislators, but reinterpreted in the 
spirit of a later age. As it now appears, it reinforces by its 
striking symbolism the eternal truth that purity and holiness are 
the essential characteristics of the people of God. 


(f) xx. 1-13. Death of Miriam at Kadesh. The ‘waters’ of 
strife and the exclusion of Moses and Aaron from the land of 
promise. 

Why were Moses and Aaron denied the privilege of entering 
the promised land? What had they done to forfeit this privilege? 
These questions supplied the principal motif for the traditions 
(from JE and P) now blended and revised by the compiler in this 
section (the detailed analysis is uncertain, and has not been 
attempted in the text above). Other motifs may be recognized 
in the explanation of the place-names Meribah and Kadesh in 
verse 13 (see notes). 

It is remarkable, however, that no very convincing reason is 
given in the text as it now stands for the exclusion of Moses, still 
less for the exclusion of Aaron, from the land of Canaan. The 
compiler, to all appearance, wishes to represent Moses as guilty 
of a momentary lack of faith in the Divine power to draw the 
water from the rock by a word, and both Moses and Aaron as 
guilty of claiming for themselves the power which belonged to 
God alone (see esp. verse 10). But a closer examination of the 
composite narrative, and of the allusions elsewhere to the conduct 
of the two leaders on this occasion as an act of rebellion against 
Yahweh (see e.g. verse 24 of this chapter and xxvii. 14) has 
suggested the belief that the compiler has considerably modified 
and toned down the representation of his sources. These allu- 
sions, it must be admitted, give colour to the suggestion, approved 
by several scholars of repute, that the words ‘Hear now, ye 
rebels’ of verse 10 were, in the original tradition, addressed by 
Yahweh Himself to Moses and Aaron (see Cornill’s suggested 


ye ae 


302 NUMBERS 20. 2-8. JEP 


congregation, came into the wilder of Zin in the first 
month : and the people abode in Kadesh ; and Miriam 
2 died there, and was buried there. And there was no 
water for the congregation : and they assembled them- 
3 selves together against Moses and against Aaron. And 
the people strove with Moses, and spake, saying, Would 
God that we had died when our brethren died before the 
4 Lorp! And why have ye brought the assembly of the 
Lorp into this wilderness, that we should die there, we 
5 and our cattle? And wherefore have ye made us to 
come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? 
it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pome- 
6 granates ; neither-is there any water to drink. And 
Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the 
assembly unto the door of the tent of meeting, and 
fell upon their faces: and the glory of the Lorp appeared 
7 unto them, And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, 
8 Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, thou, and 


reconstruction in Gray’s Commentary, p. 162), The problem is 
confessedly one of considerable difficulty, and must be studied in 
the standard critical and exegetical works. 

_1. the wilderness of Zin. See on xiii. 3, 21. 

in the first month: the number of the year has either 
dropped out accidentally, or more probably has been omitted by the 
compiler for harmonistic reasons. In P the year was dou 
the fortieth from the exodus, but in JE the Hebrews arrived at 
Kadesh soon after leaving Sinai-Horeb (see p. 259). According 
to the earlier tradition Kadesh was the centre and rallying-point 
of the tribes during the whole period of the wanderings. For its 
probable site and identification with the modern ‘Ain Kadis see 
on xiii, 26, 
and Miriam died there: probably from E; hence the date 

of Miriam’s death must not be placed, without further evidence, in 
the fortieth year, which is P’s probable ‘date for the following 
incident. The latter would be more natural at the beginning than at 
the close of the stay at Kadesh. 

3. died before the LORD: in the mutiny of Korah and the 
subsequent plague (xvi. 35, 49, xvii. 12 f.). 

8. Take the rod: described in verse 9 as ‘before Yahweh?’ 


phe tam 20. 9-13. JEP 303 


Aaron thy brother, nis speak ye unto the rock before 
their eyes, that it give forth its water; and thou shalt 
bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt 


give the congregation and their cattle drink. And Moses 9 


took the rod from before the Lorn, as he commanded 
him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly 
together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear 
now, ye rebels ; shall we bring you forth water out of 
this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and smote 
the rock with his rod twice: and water came forth abun- 
dantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle. 
And the Lorp said unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye 
believed not in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the 
children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this 
assembly into the land which I have given them. These 
are the waters of ®Meribah; because the children of 
® That is, Strife. 





with reference to xvii. to. The present form of the narrative 
leaves the purpose of the rod unexplained (contrast the parallel 
narrative, Exod. xvii. 5 f.). 

10. According to a probable reconstruction of the original 
tradition (see reference above), Moses and Aaron were bidden by 
Yahweh to speak to the rock; they refused, sceptically asking 
Yahweh, ‘Can we bring them forth water out of this rock?’, to 
which Yahweh replied, ‘ Hear now, ye rebels,’ bidding them at the 
same time strike the rock, and afterwards pronouncing upon them 
the doom of exclusion as in verse 12. 

12. to sanctify me (cf. xxvii. 14): by their disobedience and 
lack of faith, the two leaders had robbed Yahweh of the honour 
due to Him as ‘ the holy one of Israel,’ and so done injury to His 
essential attribute of holiness. The reflexive form of the verb, at 
the close of verse 13, may accordingly be rendered: ‘and he 
vindicated his holiness among them.’ The selection of this verb 
(Radésh) is probably intended, by a play upon the word, to suggest 
the origin of Kadesh asa place-name. This moiif is certain in 
the words 
' 13. These are the waters of Meribah: i.e. ‘the waters of 
strife’ or ‘contention.’ That Meribah is another name for Kadesh 
with reference to its sacred spring is seen from the frequent 


Io 


13 


304 NUMBERS 20.14. JEP JE 






Israel strove with the Lorp, and he ® was sanctified in 
them. 
14 [JE] And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto 


* Or, shewed himself holy fy @ 





occurrence of the double name ‘ Meribath-Kadesh’ (see refi. — 
p. 263). In reality, however, Kadesh was from the earliest times — 
one of those ‘well sanctuaries,’ hallowed by the presence of 

a sacred spring, and the seat of an oracle, as attested by the © 
undoubtedly ancient name En-mishpat or Fountain of Judgement — 
(Gen. xiv. 7). The name Meribah is now generally explained on — 
these lines as ‘the place of contention’ at law, the ancient 

sanctuaries being the seats of the earliest courts of justice (for — 
this, and for the relation of the present section to Exod. xvii. 1-7, 
where Meribah is identified with Massah and both with Rephidim, — 
see Meyer, Die Israeliten, pp. 54 ff. ; ef. Bennett, Cent. Bible, in loc.). 


Third Division. Cuapters XX. 14—XXXVI. 13. 
From KabESH TO THE PLAINS OF MOAB. 


Tue third division of the Book of Numbers relates the 
experiences of the Hebrew tribes from their departure from 
Kadesh-Barnea to their encampment in ‘the plains of Moab at 
(i. e. over against) Jericho.’ A summary of the contents with the 
relative subdivisions will be found in sect. ii of the Introduction. 
The most important of the historical episodes is that of Balaam, 
who was called to curse but was compelled to bless the tribes of 
Israel (chs. xxii-xxiv, from the prophetic source, JE). A large 
amount of legislative matter belonging to various strata of the 
priestly writings has also found a place in this division. : 

According to the compiler’s scheme of chronology the events 
recorded in this part of Numbers, including the conquest and 
occupation of the whole of the country east of the Jordan, fall 
within the latter half of the fortieth year from the departure of the 
Hebrews from Egypt. Unfortunately, in the present fragmentary 
condition of the original sources, it is no longer possible to trace 
with certainty the route taken by the tribes on their march from — 
Kadesh to the Jordan. As will appear in the sequel, E is the — 
most explicit, representing the Israelites as compelled by the 
hostility of Edom to adopt the circuitous route by the way of 
the Gulf of Akabah to ‘compass’ the whole land of Edom (cf. — 
Judges xi. 18). P, on the other hand, and also J probably, adopt — 
the direct route from Kadesh by the southern end of the Dead — 
Sea, crossing the northern part of Edom (see notes on xx. 22 f., — 
xxi, ro ff.), D, finally, brings the Israelites along the western 


NUMBERS 20, 15-17. JE 305 


the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou 
knowest all the travail that hath befallen us: how our 
fathers went down into Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a 
long time ; and the Egyptians evil entreated us, and our 
fathers : and when we cried unto the Lorp, he heard 
our voice, and sent an angel, and brought us forth out of 
Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the 
uttermost of thy border : let us pass, I pray thee, through 
thy land: we will not pass through field or through vine- 
yard, neither will we drink of the water of the wells : we 








frontier of Edom to the head of the Gulf of Akabah, as does E, but 
differs from the latter, in taking ‘them thereafter due north along 
the depression of tHe Arabah towards the Dead Sea and the 
territory of Moab (Deut. ii. 1-13, 28 f.). But little assistance in 
the solution of this ‘problem of the actual route of the Hebrews is 
to be obtained from the late and artificial itinerary given in 
ch, xxxiii below. ‘ 


(a) xx. 14—xxi. 35. The Hebrews, refused a passage through 
Edom, make a long detour and take possession of the country east of 
the_ Jordan. 

14-21. Edom refuses the request of his ‘ brother Israel’ to be 
allowed to pass peaceably through his territory; The source is 
JE, but mainly E (see on verse 16). 

“14. the king of Edom. That there were kings ‘in the land of 
Edom, before there reigned any king over Israel,’ is expressly 
stated i in Gen. xxxvi. 31; cf. © Sam. viii. 5. 

uthy brother Israel: see esp. Gen. xxv. 23-26 for this rela- 
tionship of Esau-Edom to Jacob-Israel; cf. Amos i. 11; Obad. to, 12, 
For the characteristic O.T. ‘ personification of a whole class or 
people so that it is spoken of, or represented as speaking, in the 
singular,’ see Gray 7 loc. 

16. and sent an angel: this thought of an angel as Yahweh’s 
representative in the work of the great deliverance is characteristic 
of E’s account of the exodus, see Exod. xiv. 19, xxiii: 20. 

Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border : a statement 
of the first importance for fixing the site of Kadesh (see note on 
xiii. 26), as lying on the extreme western frontier of Edom. It 
also proves conclusively that the territory at this time occupied by 
the Edomites extended to both sides of the Arabah. 

17. Compare the identical proposal xxi. 21 f.; from Deut. ii. 29 
it may be inferred that similar overtures were made to the 
Moabites, the record of which has not been preserved. 


x 


i] 


H 


6 


7 


: EAT 
306 NUMBERS 20. 18-23. JEP wee 






























will go along the king’s igh way, we will not turn asids 
to the right hand nor to the left, until we have pa 
18 thy border, And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not 
pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against 
19 thee. And the children of Israel said unto him, We w | 
go up by the high way: and if we drink of thy water, 
I and my cattle, then will I give the price thereof: let 
me only, without doing any thing e/se, pass through on my 
20 feet. And he said, Thou shalt not pass through. And 
Edom came out against him with much people, and with. 
a strong hand. Thus Edom refused to give Israel pass-_ 
age through his border: wherefore Israel turned omne 
from him. 
22 [P] And they journeyed from Kadesh: and the chi 
dren of Israel, even the whole congregation, came unto 
23 mount Hor. And the Lorp spake unto Moses and 
Aaron in mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, 


2 


- 





the king’s high way. For the ancient trade-routes through 

Edom, see EBi. iv. col. 5162 f., and Hastings’s DB., v. 370. | 
‘19. The Israelites make a sedonnd attempt to conciliate Edom ; 
verses 19 f., however, may represent the parallel aceount of J, xt 

21. Israel turned away from him: ‘by the way to bam | 
Sea, to compass the land of Edom,’ so runs the continuation of 
JE’s narrative in xxi: 4”, which see. we24 lo gitlenott 

22-29 (from Ps), The death of Adon: on Mount’ Hor and 

installation of Eleazar as High Priest't in his stead ; cf: xxxiii. 
where Aaron’s age is given as ‘an hundred and twenty and and these 
years.’ A variant tradition as to the place of Aaron’s death is 
found in Deut. x. 6 f., 2 fragment of an itinerary, probably from E 
(see Cent, Bible, in "Joc... Neither the Moserah of the latter 
passage nor the Mount Hor of P: has been identified with 
certainty ; both probably lay in the neighbourhood of the Jebel 
Madéra (= Mosérah ?) of Musil’s map, to the north-east of ‘Ain 
Kadis and east of the Wady Fikreh. Cf. on xxxili. g0f, =| 

22 f. mount Hor... by the border of the land of Edom ( 
xxxiii. 37). If the identification of Mt. Hor with Jebel Madé 
be accepted, P will have represented the Israelites as taking t 
direct route by the southern end of the Dead Seas 5 


NUMBERS 20. 24—21.3. PJE 307 


saying, Aaron shall be gathered unto his people: for he 24 
shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the 
children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word 
at the waters of Meribah. ‘Take Aaron and Eleazar his 25 
son, and bring them up unto mount Hor: and strip 26 
Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his 
son: and Aaron shall be gathered uxto his. people, and 
shall diethere. And Moses didas the Lorp commanded ; 27 
and they went up into mount Hor in the sight of all the 
congregation. And Moses. stripped Aaron of his gar- 28 
ments, and put them upon Eleazar his.son ; and Aaron 
died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and 
Eleazar came down from the mount. And when all the 29 
congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for 
Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel. 

[J] And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, which 21 
dwelt in the South, heard tell that Israel came by the 
way #of Atharim; and he fought against Israel, and 
took some of them captive. And Israel vowed a vow z 
unto the Lorp, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this 
people into my hand, then I will » utterly destroy their 
cities. And the Lorp hearkened to the voice of Israel, 3 

* Or, of the spies > Heb. devote. 
24. because ye rebelled, &c. : see above, verses I-13, 
26. strip Aaron of his garments: i.e. of his robes of office, 


described Lev. viii, 7 ff., with which Eleazar is vested as his 
successor in the office of High Priest. 


xxi. 1-3. A misplaced and perplexing section from JE, which 
may originally have stood in closer connexion with xiv. 39-45- 

1. We should probably read: ‘And the Canaanite which'dwelt 
in the Negeb’ (cf. xiv. 25, 45), omitting ‘the king of Arad” as 
a gloss. 

by the way of Atharim: the meaning of Atharim is un- 

known; the text is doubtless corrupt. 

3. Comparison with Judges i. 17 has suggested that this con- 
quest of Hormah—here, however, represented as a district com- 


xX 2 






308 NUMBERS 21.457 JEPH- 


and delivered up the Canaanites; and they * utterly 
destroyed them and their cities: and he name wet the 
place was called » Hormah. 

4 [P] And they journeyed ‘from mount Hor [E] Se the 
way to the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom: and 
the soul of the people ¢ was much discouraged 4 because 

5 of the way. And the people spake against God, and 
against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of 
Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, and 
there is no water; and our soul loatheth this ©light 

6 bread. And the Lorp sent fiery serpents among the 
people, and they bit the people; and much people of 

7 Israel died. And the people came to Moses, and said, 
We have sinned, because we have spoken against the 
Lorp, and against thee; pray unto the Lorp, that he 


* Heb. devoted. > From the same root as herem, a devoted 
thing. © Or, was impatient Heb. was shortened. 4 Or, in 
©’ Or, vile « 





prising several cities of the Canaanites—may have been told here 
by anticipation. 


4-9. The episode of the ‘brazen’ (copper) serpent. A final 
murmuring on the part of the Hebrews is punished by a plague of 
‘fiery’ serpents. After ‘much people’ had died of their bites, 
Moses, in answer to prayer, is instructed to set up on a pole 
a bronze model of a serpent on which the sufferers may look and 
be healed. The episode is generally assigned to E. 

4. The first six words are P’s continuation of xx. 29, and are 
continued in verse 10 below ; for the rest of 4° see on xx. 21. The 
route lay in a south- easterly direction along the western frontier 
of Edom until it reached the Red Sea at the northern end of the 
Gulf of Akabah in the neighbourhood of Elath and Ezion-geber (cf. 
Deut. ii. 8). 

5. this light bread: rather as margin ‘this vile bread.’ 

6. fiery serpents: the meaning of the word rendered ‘fiery’ — 
is still matter of conjecture. It is usually derived from the verb — 
sdraph, ‘to burn’ (‘burning serpents’), and supposed to refer to 
the burning sensation caused by the poison from their fangs. fhe 4 
connexion of the term, if any, with the seraphim of en vi, 2, 6 is 
equally uncertain, Neto 


“NUMBERS 21. 8-11, EP 309 


take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for 
the people. And the Lorp said unto Moses, Make thee 8 
a fiery serpent, and set it upon a standard: and it shall *- 
come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he 
seeth it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, 9 
and set it upon the standard: and it came to pass, that 
if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto 
the serpent of brass, he lived. [P]And the children of 10 
Israel journeyed, and pitched in Oboth. And they tr 


8. Numerous analogies to the procedure here enjoined have 
been collected by Frazer in his Golden Bough’, ii. 426f. The 
closest O.T. parallel is furnished by the golden images of the 
boils and mice in t Sam. vi. 4 f. (see Cent. Bible, in loc.). The small 
bronze serpents found at Gezer (PEF St. 1903, p. 222, fig. 13) 
and in Arabia (Nielsen, Altarab, Mondreligion, p. 190, figs. 38, 39) 
were probably of the nature of amulets or charms. 

9. a serpent of brass: rather ‘of copper,’ which the original 
signifies in Deut, viii. 9, or, as elsewhere, ‘ of bronze.’ 

The interpretation of this episode must start from the historical 
notice of the destruction by Hezekiah of the ‘ brazen’ serpent 
which had become an object of idolatrous worship in the temple 
at Jerusalem, and is expressly identified with the serpent made 
by Moses on this occasion (see 2 Kings xviii. 4). The view now 
generally advocated, even by so conservative a scholar as Bau- 
dissin (see below), is that the worship in question was part of a 
foreign cult, borrowed probably from the Canaanites, in which 
the serpent symbolized a chthonic deity possessed of special 
healing powers. An effort, it is suggested, was made to regularize 
this cult by associating its object with the founder of Israel’s 
religion; the story of Numbers, which is thus reduced to ‘an 
aetiological legend, is the result (see further Gray, Numbers, 
pp. 274 ff., and esp. the elaborate art. ‘Schlange, eherne,’ by 
Baudissin, PRE. vol. xvii. 580-6, with full bibliography). 

Whatever may be the origin of the story, it embodies the 
belief that! Yahweh alone is the true Healer (Exod. xv. 26; 
Hos. vi. 1), and illustrates the’ efficacy of faith in the means 
appointed by Him (cf. the interpretation in Wisd. xvi. 6 f.), For 
the Christian reader the ‘brazen’ serpent has become the immortal 
type of the crucified Saviour (John iii. 14). 

10 f. a fragment of P’s itinerary. If Mt. Hor=Jebel Madera, 
and Oboth=‘Ain el-Weybeh (see on xxxiii. 43)—both doubt- 
ful equations—the Hebrews are now marching across the 


310 NUMBERS 21. 12-14. PE 






journeyed from Oboth, and pitched at Iye-abarim, in 
the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sun- 
12 rising. [E] From thence they journeyed, and pitched in 
13 the valley of Zered. From thence they journeyed, and 
pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in the 
wilderness, that cometh out of the border of the Amorites: — 
for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the ~ 
14 Amorites, Wherefore it is said in the book of x3 Wars 
of the Lorn, y 14 


Arabah depression in the direction of Moab. The next stage is 
almost certainly in Moab or at least on the borders of it, for lye- 
abarim is probably the modern Khirbet ‘Ai ( e, Rev. 
Biblique, ix. (1900), pp. 287, 443), to the south of Kerak, near 
Ketherabba of Bartholomew's map, Kufrabba of Musil’s. 


12-20. An extract from E’s itinerary, according to which, : as 
was shown above, the Hebrews, after leaving the Gulf of Akabah, 
struck north-east and then north to continue their ‘compass ’ of the 
land of Edom. The compiler has omitted this part of the route, 
in order, probably, to minimize the discrepancy with P's ‘more 
direct route. 

12. in the valley of Zered: or ‘in the Wady Zeréd! (ef. Deut. 
ii. 1g). If Khirbet ‘Ai is lye, the Zered must be the Wady Kerak, 
rather than the Wady el-Ahsa or el-Hesi further to the south. — 

13..on the other side of Arnon. The Arnon is the Wady 
Mojib, but the preceding words may denote a point either to the 
north or to the south of the river according to the standpoint of 
the writer. At this time the tetritory occupied by the Moabites 
was confined to the region south of the Arnon, that to the north 
of the river having been forcibly occupied by a race of Amorite 
invaders (xxi, 26) from the northern land of Amurru sarc on 

xiii. 29). 

14. As proof that the Arnon, at the date of the Hebrew 4 in- 
vasion, formed the dividing line between Moabites and Amorites, 
the writer quotes a fragment of an ancient poem which he fond 
in ‘The Book of the Wars’ or Battles ‘of Yahweh,’ This book, of 
which there is no further mention in the O.T., was probably a 
collection of popular songs in which the victories 'éf the Hebrews 
over the Canaanites and others were celebrated. It derived its 
name from the fact that the battles of His people were Yahweh’s 
battles (see 1 Sam. xviii. 17, xxv. 28). ‘The snateh itself is an 
obscure fragment beginning in the middle of one sehtence and 
breaking off in the middle of the next’? (Gray), 


‘NUMBERS 21. 13-19. E 3TI 


o' \) Vaheb ®in Suphah, 
And the valleys of Arnon, 
And the slope of the valleys 15 
That inclineth toward the dwelling of Ar, 1 
And leaneth upon the border of Moab. 
‘fenid | from thence ¢hey journeyed to > Beer: that is the 16 
well whereof the Lorn said unto Moses, Gather the people 
together, and I will give them water. 


Then sang Israel this song : 14 
Spring up, O well ; sing ye unto it: 
The well, which the princes digged, 18 


Which the nobles of the people delved, 
© With the sceptre, avd with their staves. 
And from the wilderness ¢hey journeyed to Mattanah : 
and from Mattanah to Nahaliel: and from Nahaliel to 19 
* Or, 72 storm » Thatis, A well. ° Or, By order of the lawgiver 


Vaheb in Suphah: a verb, such as ‘we captured,’ must 
have preceded ‘Vaheb’; both localities are unknown. 

15. the dwelling of Ar: doubtless the city named ‘Ar of Moab’ 
in verse 28 (cf. note on xxii. 36), which lay on the Moabite frontier 
(Deut. ii. 18), The site has not been identified. 

16. This holds good also of Beer, i.e. Well-town, the mention 
of which gives occasion for the citation of another short poem 
celebrating the opening of the well from which the place derived 
its name. 

18. With the sceptre: rather ‘with the wand,’ denoting the 
commander's rod of office, cf. Gen. xlix. 10, R.V., ‘the ruler’s 
staff’ It has been suggested that the reference is to a custom 
according to which, after a well had been discovered, it was 
temporarily covered over, and afterwards formally opened by the 
authorities with some such symbolic action as is described in the 
text (Budde), 

And from the wilderness: the LXX has; the easier reading 
‘ And from Beer.’ 

119. The itinerary is continued northwards through several 
unidentified localities to ‘the valley that is in the field (or country) 
of Moab,’ probably the Wady ‘Ayun Musa (Moses’ springs) which 
runs into the nerth-east corner of the Dead Sea. Pisgah (xxiii. 
14; Deut. iii, 27, xxxiv. 1) appears to be a general name for a\series 


312 NUMBERS 21. 20-24. EJE 


20 Bamoth: and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the 
field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which nes down 
upon * the desert. 

at [JE] And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of 

22 the Amorites, saying, Let me pass through thy land: 
we will not turn aside into field, or into vineyard; we 
will not drink of the water of the wells: we will go by 
the king’s A7gh way, until we have passed thy border. 

23 And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through’ his 
border: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and 
went out against Israel into the wilderness, and! came to 

24 Jahaz: and he fought against Israel. And Israel smote 
him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land 
from Arnon unto Jabbok, even unto the children of 


® Or, Jeshimon © bf. Cert Dae 





of projections of the high plateau of Moab, one of which bore the 
special name of Mount Nebo (Deut. xxxiv. 1) on which Moses 
died. The latter is the modern Jebel Neba, on a line with the 
north end of the Dead Sea. 

21-32. The conquest of the Amorite kingdom lyitig between 
the Arnon and the Jabbok (cf. the parallel aco Deut. ii, 24- 

37; Judges xi. 19-22). ull .@F 

The source is still the composite work JE, in an main E. With 
the original prose narrative there has now been ‘ineorporated, 
either by E or by a later hand, an early poem supposed’ to cele- 
brate the conquest of northern Moab by the invading Amorites 
(but see below). The compiler of the Pentateuch, however, has 
preferred to complete the above itinerary to inserting this section 
in its proper place, for here the Hebrews have not yebt'entered 
the Amorite territory, being still at the point reached in merase, 
as is evident from verse 23. 

21 ff. Overtures for a peaceable passage made to the Amorite 
king are treated precisely as in the earlier case m a Edomites 
(xx. 14 ff.). bohaA 

23. and came to Jahaz. From the’ inscription of _Mesha, 
king of Moab (circa 860 B.c.), it may be inferred that Jahaz lay 
near to Dibon, and therefore not far from the Arnon (ef. verse 13). 

24. from Arnon unto Jabbok, &c. This shows that Sihon’s 
kingdom embraced the country lying between the Wady Mojib on 


NUMBERS 21.25, 26, JE 318 


Ammon: for the border of the children of Ammon was 

strong. And Israel took all these cities; and. Israel 

dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and 

in all-the towns. thereof. For, Heshbon was the city of 

Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against 

the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of 
® Heb. daughters. : 





the south and the Wady Zerka (Jabbok) on the north, and between 
the Jordan on the west and the Ammonite territory about the 
head waters of the Jabbok on the east. 

was strong: read with LXX ‘was Jazer’ (verse 32); this 
note is apparently editorial. 

25. took all these cities: evidently those of the region 
specified in the preceding verse; the notice is probably from a 
different source (J), hence the awkwardness of a reference to cities 
not previously specified. 

in Heshbon, and in all the towns thereof: in Heshbon, 
the capital of the Amorite kingdom, and its dependent villages (cf. 
R.V. marg.). Heshbon, the modern Hesban, lay almost exactly 
midway between the Arnon and the Jabbok. 

26. all his land out of his hand: we should probably read, 
all his land from Jabbok even unto Arnon’ (cf. verse 24). 

As evidence of this Amorite conquest of northern Moab, E, or 
another, cites an older poem which in his day was sung by them. 

that speak in proverbs: i.e. by the ballad-singers or wander- 

ing minstrels. For the meaning of the original (mdshélim) see 
Gray, Numbers, in loc. with Addenda, p.xiiif. With regard to 
the poem itself, ‘the one thing that is clear is that it celebrates 
a victory over Moab. ' Everything else is more or less uncertain.’ 
On various grounds, which cannot be set forth here in detail, it 
is not improbable that there has been a mistake in the application 
of this poem, and that it is really a triumphal song composed by 
a Hebrew—this must be admitted in any case—to celebrate a con- 
quest of Moab by the Hebrews themselves. In this case one naturally 
thinks of one of the campaigns of Omri, the father of Ahab (arca 
887-876 B.c.), who, as.is recorded by Mesha, ‘ oppressed Moab 
many days.’ The tide of battle, as pictured by the poet, rolls 
southward from the ruined capital, which still bore the title of 
‘the City of Sihon,’ to the banks of the Arnon. The opening 
distich would be better rendered, in accordance with its metrical 
form, thus: 

Come ye to Heshbon! Let it be rebuilt! 

Let the city of Sihon be re-established ! 


25 


- 


26 


314 NUMBERS 21. 27430, JE 
27 his hand, even unto Arnon. Wherefore’ ar that speak 


» in proverbs say, mata 
Come ye to Heshbon, 
Let the city of Sihon be built'and estbihed? tig 
a8 For a fire is gone out of Heshbon, 
A flame from the city of Sihon: ~~ ‘19m Béla in| 
It hath devoured Ar of Moab, 
The lords of * the high places of — — 
29 Woe to thee, Moab! sD be Tio 
Thou art undone, O people of Chemosh; . © 
He hath given his sons as fugitives, 9 ~~ ©” 
And his daughters into captivity, 
Unto Sihon king of the Amorites. 
30 We have shot at them ; Heshbon is perished rey 
unto Dibon, 
And we have laid waste even unto Nophah, — 
b Which veacheth unto Medeba.: 


*Or, Bamoth Some ancient authorities have, Fire reached uno, 





28. The havoc of war is compared to the devastation wrought 
by fire. For ‘Ar of Moab’ see on’ verse 15. For the sake of a 
better ‘parallelism, however, it has been proposed to read: ‘It 
hath devoured the “cities” of Moab, And’ “consumed” the 
heights of Arnon’ (cf. LXX). 

29. O people of Chemosh: the national deity of the Moabites 
(Judges xi. 24), as Yahweh of ‘the Hebrews. Cf. Mesha’s In- 
scription, line 5, ‘Chemosh was angry with his land,’ and allowed 
Omri to oppress it. So here Chemosh is represented as giving 
up the Moabites, his ‘sons’ and ‘ daughters,” to captivity, © 

Unto Sihon king of the Amorites: the laws of both 
grammar and’ metre are violated by this reading j>read, “And his 
daughters as captives to the king’ (for this’ atid other textual 
emendations see the critical notes in Kittel’s Biblia Hebraiéa). 
On the view of the poem adopted above, ‘the king” is, of course, 
the Hebrew king, probably Omri. 

30. The text of this verse is hopelessly corrupt. The first 
distich has been restored, with the help of the Versions, to read : 
‘Their offspring is perished From Heshbon unto Dibon,’ but only 
the last words of the second, ‘ unto Medeba,’ are recognizable. 


NUMBERS 21. 31—22.1. JEDP 315 


‘Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. And = 
Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they took the towns 
thereof, and drove out the Amorites that were there. 
[D] And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: 33 
and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he 
and all his people, to battle at Edrei. And the Lorp 34 
said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him 
into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and 
thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of 
the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon. So they smote 35 
him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was 
none left him remaining: and they possessed his 
land. [{P] And the children of Israel journeyed, and 22 


31. appears to be the conclusion of E’s narrative, referring 
back to 24°. The following verse is an editorial addition from \ 
another source, probably J. Jazer has not been satisfactorily 
identified. 

83-35. This summary account of the defeat of Og, king of 
Bashan, and of the occupation of his country is now recognized 
as a Jater insertion, taken over with the necessary change from the 
first person to the third, from Deut. iii, 1-3 (see Robinson’s notes 
in Cent. Bible, in loc.). 


(6) xxii-xxiv. Balak and Balaam. 

Alarmed by the defeat of the Amorites and the occupation of 
their territory by the invading tribes, Balak, king of Moab, sends 
for Balaam, a foreign magician and seer of great repute, in order 
that he may lay the Hebrews under a powerful curse, and by so 
doing deliver them into the hand of Moab. But instead of cursing, 
Balaam is compelled by an irresistible Divine impulse to bless 
Israel, and finally to announce the future subjection to his enemy 
of Balak’s country and people. This introduction of a heathen, 
or at least of a non-Hebrew, seer as an inspired prophet of 
Yahweh, the literary skill with which the whole episode is 
treated, and the religious fervour and wide outlook of the poems, 
together with the unique incident of the speaking ass, and the 
character-study presented by Balaam himself, have combined to 
invest this section of the Book of Numbers with an unusual 
interest, 

Looking at this episode as a whole, the purpose of its compiler 
may be said to be twofold : to show the futility of all attempts on 


> 


316 NUMBERS 221% Bo - 
pitched in the plains of Moab beyond the einai 


ia 


he 








the part of man to foil the purpose of God, and ii ex ression, 
at the moment when they were about to enter the land o promise, 
to the glorious future which God had in store for the people of 
His choice, 

There is no reason to doubt the historicity of the main incident, 
which is entirely in accord with early ideas regarding the efficacy 
of a spell wrought by a powerful magician, In these chapters, 
therefore, we may recognize the later literary treatment of a 
genuine popular tradition. It is evident, however, that they do 
not form a homogeneous literary unit. The poems, th 
younger than the popular tradition, are undoubtedly older than 
the narrative in which they are now imbedded, for they seem to 
breathe the spirit of the golden age of the Hebrew monarchy, the 
age of David and Solomon (see below, p. 331f.). But even the nar- 
rative is not homogeneous. Apart from the presence of doublets 
(cf. xxii. 2° and 4, : 3° and 3”, the ‘elders’ of 7 with the ‘ princes” 
of 8, 15, 21) and the divergent representations as to the home 
of Balaam (see on xxii. 5), it has long been recognized that xxii. 
22-35 cannot have come from the hand that wrote verse 20 and 
its context, The section as it stands may be supposed to have 
received substantially its present form from the editor who com- 
bined J’and E (R#*). The majority of recent critics favour the 
attribution of xxii. 22-34 (35) with such of the preceding verses 
as show some affinity therewith, and the bulk of ch, xxiv to J; 
the rest of xxii and the whole of xxiii to E. 

Only xxii. 1 can be assigned to P, for the references to Balaam 
in the priestly , writings, including. the manner of his death 
(xxxi. 8), reflect a wholly different view of his character. There 
he appears as a Midianite sorcerer (Joshua xiii. 22), who suggested 
a peculiarly abhorrent means for bringing about the ruin of the 
Israelites (Num, xxxi. 16), This separation of the sources has 
greatly simplified the problem of the character of aes Fa InE 
in particular he is represented in an entirely fayo e light, as 
one resolved to know and to obey the will of Yahweh, and as the 
recipient of a genuine Divine revelation, which he delivesa with- 
out the least regard to his personal interests... 

1. The continuation of P’s itinerary from xxi. 11, suitably 
placed here as locating the Hebrews during the episode which 
follows. 

beyond the Jordan at Jericho: this rendering: suggests that 
Jericho lay on the east of the Jordan ; our idiom requires ‘ opposite 
Jericho,’ which is what is meant by § on the other side of the 
Jordan of Jericho’ of the Hebrew text, 


NUMBERS 22. 2-5, JE 317 


[J#] And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel 2 
had done to the Amorites. And Moab was sore afraid 3 
of the people, because they were many: and Moab @was 
distressed because of the children of Israel. And Moab 4 
said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall >this multitude 
lick up all that is round about us, as the ox licketh up 
the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was 
king of Moab at that time. And he sent messengers 5 
unto Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the 
River, to the’ land of the children of his people, to call 
him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from 
Egypt: behold, they cover the ¢ face of the earth, and 

® Or, abhorred > Heb. the assembly. © Heb. eye. 











4. unto the elders of Midian: here and in verse 7 an editorial 
gloss with reference to xxv. 6 ff.; xxxi. 8, 16 (P*). 

5-14. Balak’s first deputation to Balaam. 

.5. Balaam the son of Beor: the name is almost identical in 
the original with that of Bela, the son of Beor, an early king of 
Edom (Gen. xxxvi. 32),a resemblance which is ‘scarcely accidental’ 
(see following note). 

to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of the 
children of his people. The latter expression is peculiar, and 
it is generally agreed that the Samaritan Pentateuch has preserved 
the true text: ‘the land of the children of Ammon’ (reading yy 
for Yay). The change will have been made in order to remove 
the discrepancy of the two statements which probably come from 
the different sources. For ‘the River’ is the Euphrates, and 
Pethor may be the Pitru of the Assyrian annals. But a still older 
tradition is to be found in the poem xxiii. 7, where for ‘ Aram’ we 
must read, as so often in O.T., ‘Edom,’ since ‘the mountains of 
the East’ in the parallel line have been shown by Ed. Meyer 
(Die Isvaeliten, pp. 244, 378) to be the mountains of Edom, east of 
the Arabah (cf, Gen. xxv. 6, and for Edom’s reputation for wisdom 
see Jer. xlix. 7; Obad. 8). The misreading of Aram for Edom 
(Qq8 for O18) was probably earlier than E, whose mention of 
Pethor will then represent a later stage of the tradition (cf. Deut. 
xxiii. 4), From the subsequent narrative one receives the im- 
pression that Balaam’s home was much nearer Moab than the 
distant Euphrates, but whether it Jay in Edom, as is most probable, 
or among ‘the children of Ammon’ (so presumably J), or among 
the Midianites (P, see above), must be left an open question. 


318 NUMBERS 22. 6-1, JB 


6 they abide over against me: come now therefore, I pray 
thee, curse me this people ; for they are too mighty for 
me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite 
them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I 
know that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he 

7 whom thou cursest is cursed. And the elders of Moab 
and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of — 
divination in their hand; and they came unto Balaam, 

8 and spake unto him the words of Balak. And he said 
unto them, Lodge here this night, and I will bring you 
word again, as the Lorn shall speak unto me; and the 

9 princes of Moab abode with Balaam. . And God came 
unto. Balaam, and said, What men are these with thee? 

10 And Balaam said unto God, Balak the son of Zippor, 
11 king of Moab, hath sent unto me, saying, Behold, the 
people that is come out of Egypt, it covereth the face of 





6. curse me this people. Balak wishes to have the Hebrews , 
laid under a powerful spell, in the hope of thus bein; able the 
more effectively to crush the dreaded invaders. For t Nseacy 
attributed by the Hebrews, as by other races, ancient an moder 
to the curse or spell, see Gray’s illustrations, Numbers, in loc., ad 
—especially for the widespread use of the curse in ‘war Schwally, 
Semittsche Kriegsaltertiimer, p. 26 f. 

7. the elders of Moab: apparently J’s equivalent ‘of ‘the 
princes’ of E’s embassy (verses 8, 13 ff.). The mention of 
‘the rewards of divination’ must not be entered in the account 
against Balaam, in view of 1 Sam. ix. 7 f. 

8. Lodge here this night; dreams and visions of the ni 
are media of Divine revelation characteristic of E (see on ser 

as the LORD shall speak unto me. For the ecient 
interchange of the Divine names in this section, see the data in 
Gray, of, at. 310 f. In the present J/iterary form of this episode, 
Balaam is represented as a worshipper of Israel’s God, Yahweh, 
note esp. verse 18, ‘Yahweh, my God;’ but it would be rash 
to infer from this that he was so represented in the earlier cral 
traditions, still less is there ground for the contention that Balaam 
was in reality a Yahweh-worshipper ; cf. a similar use of the Divine 
name ascribed to Rahab, the Canaanite, i in Joshua ii, 9-11, and see 
Marti, Stud. u. Krit. 1908, 326 f, 


NUMBERS 22. 12-21. JE 319 


the earth: now, come curse me them ; peradventure I 
shall be able to fight against them, and shall drive them 
out. And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go 
with them ; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are 
blessed. And Balaam rose up in the morning, and said 
unto the princes of Balak, Get, you into your land: for 
the Lorp refuseth to give me leave to go with you. 
And the princes of Moab rose up, and they went unto 
Balak, and said, Balaam refuseth to come with us, And 
Balak sent yet again princes, more, and more honourable 
than they. And they came to Balaam, and said to him, 
Thus saith Balak the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I pray 
thee, hinder thee from coming unto. me: for I will 
promote thee unto very great honour, and. whatsoever 
thou sayest unto me I will do: come therefore, I pray 
thee, curse me this people. And Balaam answered and 
said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me 
his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the 
word of the Lorp my God, to do less or more. Now 
therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here this night, that 
I may know what the Loxp will speak unto me more. 
And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, 
If the men be come to call thee, rise up, go with them ; 
but only the word which I speak, unto thee, that shalt 
thou do. And Balaam rose up in the morning, and 
saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. 





s 


15-21. A second and ‘more honourable’ deputation to Balaam 
is more successful than the first. The seer is permitted to go to 
Balak under strict conditions as to what he shall say. 

18. to do less or more: lit. ‘to do (anything) small or great,’ 
i.e. ‘to do anything at all’; for the idiom cf. 1 Sam. xx, 2, xxil. 15. 
Balaam confesses himself a submissive instrument in the hand of 
Yahweh his God. 











320 NUMBERS 22, 22-24. JE 


az And God’s anger was kindled because he went : the 
angel of the Lorp placed himself in the way for an 
adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, 
23 and his two servants were with him. And’ the ass saw 
the angel of the Lorp’ standing in the way, with his 
sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside ont 
of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote 
24 the ass, to turn her into the way. Then the angel of the 
Lorp stood in a hollow way between’ the vineyards, a 
a5 fence being on this side, and a fence'on that side. And 
the ass saw the angel of the Lorp, and she/thrust herself 
unto the wall, and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall: 
26 and he smote her again. And the angel of the Lorp 
went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no 
2, way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. And 
the ass saw the angel of the Lorp, and ‘she lay down 


ee i lee el ea 

22-34. A striking episode from a variant. tradition (J) (J), which 
seems to have presented Balaam in a less favourable light than 
the tradition followed by E. As the Seer is here a dcom patel 
only by his two servants) (see on verse 35), J: may have repre- 
sented him as having at first refused to accompany the deputation, 
which had already returned to Balak ; later he may have decided 
to go in spite of his better self, tempted by the offered rewards, 
but if this was,J’s representation, the passage containing it_ 
been omitted. The endowment of Balaam’s she-ass Wi 
abnormal powers of vision and even with the power of speech is 
the outstanding feature of this early Hebrew folk-tale, and has its 
analogies in the popular. tales of almost every country, of the East 
as of the West!. The Hebrew tale, however, is designed’to show 
how Yahweh may make use of one of the meanest of His creatures 
to rebuke the obstinacy and pride of man. The sympathy which 
the tale betrays with the sufferings of the lower animals should also 
be noted (cf. Jonah iv. 11). 

24. in a hollow way, &c.: a narrow path is meant between 
the enclosing walls of two aglacent vineyards. at 

1 A full and original study of pe whale Balaam episode from this 
standpoint has recently appeared from the pen of Gressmann in Die 
Schriften d. alt. Test. [1909] i. 57-70. 4 


a 








NUMBERS 22. 28-35. JE 321. 


under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he 
smote the ass with his staff. And the Lorp opened the 28 
mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have 
I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three 
~ times? And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou 29 
hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine 
hand, for now I had killed thee. And the ass said unto 30 
Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden 
all thy life long unto this day? was I ever wont to do so 
unto thee? And he said, Nay. Then the Lorp opened 
the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lorp 
standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand : 
and he bowed his head, and fell on his face. And the 32 
angel of the Lorp said unto him, Wherefore hast thou 
smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I am come 
forth for an adversary, because thy way is “perverse 
before me: and the ass saw me, and turned aside before 33 
me these three times: unless she had turned aside from 
me, surely now I had even slain thee, and saved her 
alive. And Balaam said unto the angel of the Lorp, 34 
I have’ sinned ; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the 
way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will 
get me back again. And the angel of the Lorn said 35 
unto Balaam, Go with the men: but only the word that 
I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam 


® Heb. headlong. 


[Ss} 
a 


32. The text of the last clause of this verse is corrupt, and the 
rendering uncertain. It is clear, however, that the angel, as 
Yahweh’s representative, expresses the Divine disapproval of 
Balaam’s journey, as indeed is shown by the answer of the latter 
(verse 34). 

85 is explained by most critics as in the main from the hand of 
R‘, linking the extract from J to the main thread of E’s narrative— 
note the sudden reappearance of ‘ the princes of Balak.’ 


¥ 


322 NUMBERS 22. 36-41. JE 


36 went with the princes of Balak. And when Balak heard — 


that Balaam was come, he went out to meet him unto 


the City of Moab, which is on the border of Arnon, 
'37 which is in the utmost part of the border. And Balak 


said unto Balaam, Did I not earnestly send unto thee to 
call thee? wherefore camest thou not unto me? am I 
38 not able indeed to promote thee to honour? And 
Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee: 
have I now any power at all to speak any thing? the 


word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak. 


39 And Balaam went with Balak, and they came unto 
40 Kiriath-huzoth. And Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, 
and sent to Balaam, and to the princes that were with 
him. And it came to pass in the morning, that Balak 


~ 


4 


took Balaam, and brought him up into * the high places 


® Or, Bamoth-baal 


36. unto the City of Moab: read ‘unto Ar of Moab’ (ar for 
‘ir), the city mentioned in xxi. 15, and in both passages described 
as lying on Moab’s (northern) frontier formed by the Arnon; 
here it is also said to lie at the (eastern) extremity of this frontier, 
which suits the location of Balaam’s home in the ‘ mountains of 
the East,’ as explained above. 

38. Balaam once more confesses himself a passive instrument 
in God’s hand, able and willing only to speak the words which 
God may put into his mouth (cf. xxili. 5, 12, 16, and the parallel 
case of Micaiah, 1 Kings xxii. 14). Balaam is here represented 

as a true prophet of the Most High. 

39. The site of Kiriath-huzoth (‘ city of streets’) is unknown. 

40. and sent to Balaam: portions jof the sacrificial flesh as 
a special mark of honour, cf. 1 Sam. ix. 23 f. 


Xxii. 41 —xxiii. 6 relate the preparations for the great incantation. 
It was essential for the working of the spell that the magician 
should see the proposed victim thereof; accordingly Balaam is 
conducted to three different places in succession, from which an 


ever closer view is obtained of the camp of Israel. The first 


scene is laid at ; 
41. the high places of Baal: the local sanctuary of Baal; 


these baméth or ‘high places’ (xxxiii. 52) were usually situated 


on hill-tops (cf. xxiii. 9 and 1 Sam. ix. 14, 19). 





NUMBERS 23. 1-8. JE 323 


of Baal, and he saw from thence the utmost part of the 
people. And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here 23 
seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and¢t 
seven rams. And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; 2 
and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock 
andaram. And Balaam said unto Balak, Stand by thy 3 
burnt offering, and I will go; peradventure the Lorp 
will come to meet me: and whatsoever he sheweth me 
I will tell thee. And he went to a bare height. And 4 
God met Balaam: and he said unto him, I have: pre- 
pared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bullock 
and a ram on every altar. And the Lorp put a word in 5 
Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus 
thou shalt speak. And he returned unto him, and, lo, 6 
he stood by his burnt offering, he, and all the princes of 
Moab. And he took up his parable, and said, - 7 

From Aram hath Balak brought me, 

The king of Moab from the mountains of the East : 

Come, curse me Jacob, 

And come, ® defy Israel. 

How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed ? 8 


* Heb. be wroth against. 





the utmost part of the people: here the edge of the Hebrew 
encampment nearest to the seer’s view-point. 


xxiii. r. The number seven plays a large part also in the ritual 
and incantation literature of Babylonia (cf. Joshua vi. 4). 

3. he went to a bare height: such is the meaning of the 
received text, which, however, is almost certainly corrupt. 


7-10. Balaam’s first oracular utterance—‘ parable’ is an inade- 
quate rendering—a poem of seven distichs, each clearly showing 
the synonymous parallelism of its two members, which is one of 
the distinctive marks of Hebrew poetry. 

._ %. From Aram (o0ND): read ‘from Edom’ (ow); for 
this reading, and for ‘the mountains of the East,’ see note on 
xxii. 5. 
+ 


% For from the top of the rocks I see him ae 


II 


12 


13 


324 NUMBERS 23. 9-13. JE oa 
And how shall I defy, whom the Lorp hath not — 


defied ? i> 


And from the hills I behold him; 

Lo, it is a people that dwell alone, 

And shall not be reckoned among the nations. 

Who can count the dust of Jacob, 

® Or number the fourth part of Israel ? 

Let > me die the death of the righteous, 

And let my last end be like his! 
And Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou pa 
unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and, 
behold, thou hast blessed them altogether. And he 
answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that 
which the Lorp putteth in my mouth? And Balak said 
unto him, Come, I pray thee, with me unto another 
place, from whence thou mayest see them; thou shalt 

* Heb. Or, by number, the &c. > Heb. my soul. 


) 

9. a people that dwell alone, &c. This distich is usually 
understood as referring less to the geographical isolation, or the 
national aloofness of the Hebrews, than to their position of special 
privilege as the ‘peculiar’ people of Yahweh (Exod. xix. 5; 
Amos iii. 2, and often) ; by this they were distinguished from the 


heathen ‘ nations’ around them. The word for ‘nations’ is that — 


so frequently rendered ‘ Gentiles,’ 





10. The sixth distich expresses amazement ‘at the vast numbers _ 


of the Hebrew people, metaphorically described as ‘the dust of 
Jacob’ (Gen. xiii. 16, xxviii. 14). The second line must be read : 
‘or who hath reckoned up the myriads of Israel?’ Cf. LXX text 
and x. 36 above. The closing distich strikes a personal note, and 
is regarded by many as an addition to the original poem. 

let my last end be like his: read probably ‘like theirs’; 
the poet wishes that his life’s end may be full of peace, doubtless 


also that he may come to his ‘grave in a full age, like as a shock 


of corn cometh in in its season ’ (Job v, 26). 


11-17. Keenly disappointed with the issue of the first seance,. 


Balak arranges for a second from a more favourable situation. 
13. thou shalt see... see them all. If these clauses were 


: 
; 
| 


4 


NUMBERS 23. 14-19. JE 325 


see but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them 
all:-and curse me them from thence. And he took him 
into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built 
seven altars, and offered up a bullock and a ram on every 
altar. And he said unto Balak, Stand here by thy burnt 
offering, while I meet #te ZorvD yonder. And the Lorp 
met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, 
Return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou speak. And he 
came to him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt offering, and 
the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto 
him, What hath the Lorp spoken? And he took up his 
parable, and said, 

Rise up, Balak, and hear ; 

Hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor : 

God is not a man, that he should lie; 

Neither the son of man, that he should repent: 

Hath he said, and shall he not do it? 


original, Balaam would have been in no better position for cursing 
Israel than before (see xxii. 41); they are probably a later attempt 
to differentiate between the situation in this verse and that of 
xxiv. 2. In reality, although Balaam here sees the whole of the 
Hebrew camp, in xxiv. 2 he has been brought so much nearer 
to the latter, that the location of the separate tribes can, for the 
first time, be clearly distinguished. 

14. into the field of Zophim: lit. ‘of watchers,’ the ‘ out- 
look’ ground (site unknown), a name suggestive of a wide view 
as the context requires. For Pisgah as a range of mountains in 
Moab, see on xxi. 20, The following mise en scéne is the same as 
on the first occasion. 


18-24, Balaam’s second utterance, a poem of eleven—originally 
perhaps ten—distichs. After emphasizing the unchangeableness 
of the Divine purpose to bless Israel, the poet breaks forth into a 
eulogy of Jacob-Israel’s happy lot which springs from the presence 
in their midst of Yahweh their King. 

ig. Rise up, Balak: not to be understood literally, but in the 
sense of ‘Attend, O Balak.’ 

19. A classical expression of the belief in the immutability of 

. the Divine character, repeated in part in 1 Sam. xv.29. The 


“ 


4 


15 
16 


_ 


7 


8 


La) 


#9 


20 


ai 


22 


a3 


326 NUMBERS 23. 20-23. JE anc. 


Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good 2 - 
Behold, I have received commandment to bless: — 
And he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. 
He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, 
Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel : 
The Lorp his God is with him, 
And the shout of a king is among them. 
God bringeth them forth out of Egypt ; 
He hath as it were the * strength of the » wild-ox. 
Surely there is no enchantment ¢ with Jacob, 

* Or, horns » Or, ox-antelope Heb. reem. © Or, against 





second distich has been admirably summarized by the author 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the words, ‘ He is faithful that 
promised’ (x. 23). 

20. And he hath blessed: read, with Sam. and LXX: ‘ therefore 
will I bless and will not recall it (the blessing).’ 

21. The subject in the first distich is impersonal, ‘one hath 
not,’ &c. In our idiom this construction is often best reproduced 
by the passive : ‘ No misfortune is to be discovered in Jacob, nor — 
is any trouble to be seen in Israel.’ This suits the context better 
than the moral reference which underlies the rendering of R.V. 

the shout of a king is among them: a difficult line, fre- 
quently interpreted in the light of xxiv. 7, and of r Sam, x, 24, 
2 Sam. xvi. 16, as an echo of the national pride in the then 
recently instituted monarchy; but the parallelism demands that 
the ‘king’ referred to should be Yahweh, Israel’s Divine King 
(x Sam, viii. 7, xii. 13). Cheyne would read ‘ And the glory of 
the King is among them,’ understanding by this ‘the visible 
presence of Yahweh, symbolized and represented by the ark’ 
(Exp. Times, x. 401). 

22. Another difficult distich, which recurs in xxiv. 8. The 
form and meaning of the word paraphrased as ‘strength’ (R.V. 
marg. ‘ horns’) are uncertain, as is also the syntactical relation of 
the two parts of the distich to each other. Gray renders : ‘God 
who brought him forth out of Egypt Is for him [Israel] like the 
glory of a wild ox;’ but the latest interpreter finds no difficulty 
in so early a poem in the—at best only probable—rendering of the 
text as it stands: ‘God... has horns like those of a wild ox,’ 
recalling the horns in the sculptured representations of Babylonian 
deities, attached to their turbans as ‘a standing attribute of divinity’ 
(Gressmann, of. cif., pp. 56, 66). 4 

23. Text and margin above represent two opposite views of the 





NUMBERS 23, 24-28. JE 327 


'- Neither4s there any divination * with Israel : 
> Now shall it be ¢ said of Jacob and of Israel, 
What hath God wrought! 

Behold, the people riseth up as a lioness, 
And as a lion doth he lift himself up: 

He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, 
And drink the blood of the slain. 


And Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse them at all, 25 
nor bless them at all. But Balaam answered and said 26 


unto Balak, Told not I thee, saying, All that the Lorp 
speaketh, that I must do? And Balak said unto Balaam, 27 
Come now, I will take thee unto another place; per- 
adventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me 


them from thence. And Balak took Balaam unto the 28 


* Or, against > Or, At the due season 
© Or, told to... what God hath wrought 


meaning of the first distich. The interpretation implied in the 
tendering of the text is that the presence of Yahweh in Israel 
renders recourse to enchantment and divination unnecessary. 
The marginal rendering ‘ against,’ on the other hand, implies that 
the arts of the magician are powerless against Israel. On the 
whole the former view is the more probable. Alternative render- 
ings are also given of the second half of this verse ; owing to the 
lack of evident connexion with its context, this distich is regarded 
by many as a later addition. Others would extend the intrusion 
to the whole verse. Certainly a better connexion is thus secured 
between verses 22 and 

24 in which Israel is compared to a lion about to spring upon 
his prey, a figure which reappears slightly altered in xxiv. 9, and 
in two other early poems, Gen. xlix. 9; Deut. xxxiii. 20. 

25f. Balak’s words to Balaam may be thus paraphrased: ‘If 
thou canst not in any wise curse the Hebrews, thou shalt at least 
have no further opportunity of blessing them.’ After his reply in 
verse 26, Balaam was probably represented in E as at once return- 
ing home; indeed, xxiv. 25, which now forms the close of the 
combined narrative, may once have stood here. In order, how- 
ever, to introduce J’s version of Balaam’s blessing, verses 27 ff., 
it is suggested, were composed on the model of xxiii. 1 ff., 14 ff. 
(E). The scene of Balaam’s third utterance is the unidentified 
Mt. Peor (cf. xxv. 3): 


228 NUMBERS 23. 29—24. 4. JE 


29 top of Peor, that looketh down upon *the desert. And 
Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and 
30 prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams. And 
Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bullock 
24 and a ram on every altar. And when Balaam saw that 
it pleased the Lorn to bless Israel, he went not, as at the 
other times, to meet with enchantments, but he set his 
2 face toward the wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his 
eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes ; 
3 and the spirit of God came upon him. And he took up 
his parable, and said, 
Balaam the son of Beor saith, 
And the man whose eye » was closed saith : 
4 He saith, which heareth the words of God, 
“Which seeth the vision of the Almighty, 
® Or, Jeshimon > Or, ts opened 


xxiv. 2. he saw Israel dwelling according to theirtribes, As 
the narrative is now arranged, these words of J are meant to be 
understood in the sense suggested in the note on xxiii, 13. 


3-9. Balaam’s third utterance, a poem arranged in four strophes 
(3°, 43 5,6; 7, 8%; 8°* 9) of three distichs each. The poet, who 
is also a fervid patriot, after, in the first strophe, introducing 
the seer in a state of trance as the mouthpiece of God, describes 
in glowing terms the beauty and charm of Israel’s home, the terror 
he inspires in his enemies, the glory of the monarchy, and finally 
Israel’s might in war and his majesty in peace. 

3. Balaam...saith: rather, ‘The oracle of Balaam,’ &c., 
and so in verse 15. Both J’s oracles begin with an identical 
description of the ecstatic condition of the seer (cf. note on xi. 25). 

the man whose eye was closed: margin, ‘(whose eye) is 
opened ’—a veritable crux interpretum. The alternativesof R.V. 
are obtained according as the Hebrew is read séthitim or shethtim. 
The LXX has ‘the man who seeth truly,’ the Vulgate ‘the man 
whose eyes are stopped.’ The traditional view, still held e.g. 
by Gressmann, is that of R.V. text—the poet describes Balaam as 
lying in a trance with the eye of flesh closed, but with the inward 
eye open to ‘the vision of the Almighty’ (verse 4). 

4. The second line of the first distich is to be restored froin 
verse 16: ‘And knoweth the knowledge of the Most High’ 





NUMBERS 24. 5-8. JE 329 


Falling down, and having his eyes open: 
How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, 

Thy tabernacles, O Israel ! 

As valleys are they spread forth, 

As gardens by the river side, 

As lign-aloes which the Lorp hath planted, 
As cedar trees beside the waters. 

Water shall flow from his buckets, 

And his seed shall be in many waters, 

And his king shall be higher than Agag, 
And his kingdom shall be exalted. 

God bringeth him forth out of Egypt ; 

He hath as it were the * strength of the * wild-ox: 
He shall eat up the nations his adversaries, 
And shall break their bones in pieces, 

And smite /Zem through with his arrows. 


4 See ch. xxiii. 22. 





6. Render: ‘as valleys that stretch afar.’ For ‘lign-aloes,’ 
an exotic tree not likely to be familiar to the Hebrew poet, read, 
with a slight change, ‘oaks.’ With a poet’s license, Israel’s 
heritage in Canaan is compared toa paradise planted with royal 
trees and watered by flowing streams, 

7 seems to open with a distich in praise of the abundance of 
water, more particularly as required for the irrigation of the crops. 
If so, the reference is strangely expressed, which has led to the 
adoption by Gray and others of Cheyne’s emendation: ‘ Peoples 
shall tremble at his might, And his arm [reading zéro‘6 for zar‘d, 
both = wn in Hebrew] shall be on many nations’ (Exp. Times, 
x. 401; cf. Kittel, Bib. Hebraica, in loc.). 

And his king... Agag: the Amalekite king captured by 
Saul and slain by Samuel (1 Sam. xv. 8 f., 32 f.). If the reading 
can be trusted—the oldest Versions read otherwise—this reference 
provides a terminus a quo for the date of the poem. 

8. For the first distich, closing the third strophe, see on xxiii. 
22, This is followed in the present text by a tristich against the 
analogy of all the poems, which are arranged in distichs. Omit the 
second line of the three, and, by the addition of a single letter 
(vsin for yxm), read the third thus: ‘And shall smite down 
his oppressors,’ which gives an excellent parallelism. 


5 ae ee 


330 NUMBERS 24.915. JE 



















9 He couched, he lay down as alion, yt 
And as a lioness ; who shall rouse him up? 
Blessed be every one that blesseth thee, = 8 
And cursed be every one that curseth thee. ; 

ro And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he 
smote his hands together: and Balak said unto Balaam, 
I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou 
x1 hast altogether blessed them these three times. There- 
fore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote 
thee unto great honour; but, lo, the Lorp hath kep' 
1a thee back from honour. And Balaam said unto Balak, 
Spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest 
13 unto me, saying, If Balak would give me his house ful 
of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the 
Lorp, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; 
14 what the Lorp speaketh, that will I speak? And now, 
behold, I go unto my people: come, avd I will advertise 
thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter 
15 days. And he took up his parable, and said, 


J 





9. The metaphor of the first distich pourtrays the majesty of 
Israel in time of peace, as the parallel in xxiii, 24 described his 
irresistible power in war. The poem closes with the thought 
that such is the solidarity of Yahweh and Israel that he that 
blesses Israel is blessed, and he that curses _ is cursed, f 
Israel’s God; cf. Gen. xxvii, 29. é 


10-14. Balaam i is dismissed by Balak with anger and contempt, 
but before parting finally from the Moabite king he announces his 
intention of revealing to the latter what the future holds in ‘east 
for Moab at the hand of Israel. 

14. I will advertise thee: an obsolete use of ‘advertise’ in 
the sense of ‘inform,’ ‘instruct.’ 

in the latter days: lit. ‘in the end of the days,’ a ree 
phrase in the prophetic literature for ‘ the final period of the future 
so far as it falls within the range of the speaker’s ie ial 
(Driver), 


15-17. Balaam’s fourth utterance, consisting of two strophes,each 
of three distichs as before. The first strophe is identical with the 


- NUMBERS 24. 16,17. JE 331 


Balaam the son of Beor saith, 

And the man whose eye * was closed saith: 
He saith, which heareth the words of God, 
And knoweth the knowledge of the Most High, 
Which seeth the vision of the Almighty, 
Falling down, and having his eyes open: 

I see him, but not now: 

I behold him, but not nigh: 

There shall come forth a star out of Jacob, 
And a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, 

And shall smite through the corners of Moab, 
And break down all the sons » of tumult. 


® Or, is opened » Or, of Sheth 


corresponding lines of the third oracle (verses 3 f.) ; in the second, 
the seer has a vision of Israel’s future, and sees the rise of an 
illustrious king who is destined to put an end to the independence 
of Moab. 

16. And knoweth the knowledge: to whom is revealed the 
secret (Amos iii. 7) of the Most High. The presence in this 
strophe of the three early names of the Deity, El (God), Elyon 
(Most High), and Shaddai (Almighty), is noteworthy. 

17. The second strophe : the vision of the future king—David. 

a star out of Jacob. In Eastern imagery a star has always 
been a favourite figure for a king (cf. in O.T. Isa. xiv. r2). Itis 
difficult to believe that the author of these lines had in view any 
other than King David, who first reduced Moab to subjection 
(2 Sam. viii. 2). The later Jews, and after them the exegesis of 
the Church (cf. Rev. xxii. 16), gave the lines a Messianic interpre- 
tation, a view shared by some recent scholars who regard the 
Balaam poems, in their present form at least, as comparatively 
late productions. 

the corners: viz. of the head, the temples, as Lev. xix. 27. 

And break down: read, as in Jer. xlviii. 45, an echo of this 
passage, ‘And the crown of the head’ (1p7p for 1777). 

all the sons of tumult: a doubtful rendering based on the 
different text of Jer. Joc. ct. The parallelism is decisive for the 
marginal rendering, Sheth being probably the name of one of 
the leading tribes of Moab. Render: ‘And shall shatter the 
temples of Moab (poetically regarded as an individual, see on 
xx, 14), And the crown of all the sons of Sheth,’ 


16 


17 


18 


9 


20 


332 NUMBERS 24. 18-2. JE ~ 


And Edom shall be a possession, hi. 


Seir also shall be a possession, which werehis enemies ; 

While Israel doeth valiantly. 

And out of Jacob shall one have dominion, 

And shall destroy the remnant from the city. 
And he looked on Amalek, and took up his parable, 
and said, 

Amalek was the first of the nations-, 

But his latter end shall come to destruction. 





Looking back on the preceding oracles, apart from their present 
setting, we are justified in regarding them as a series of poems in 
which expression is given to the quickened consciousness of 
nationality which sprang up among the Hebrews after the estab- 
lishment of the monarchy, and especially after the brilliant con- 
quests of David. They likewise voice their authors’ conviction of 
the future destiny of Israel as the people of Yahweh's choice, in 
which respect they may be compared with Vergil’s eulogy of the 
imperial destiny of Rome in the sixth book of the Aeneid. As 
has recently been said, ‘ Israel’s history as a whole is a sublime 
illustration of the truth that to believe is to achieve, even though 
the ultimate realization may be very different from the original 
hope’ (Kent, Heroes and Crises of Early Hebr. Hist., p. 224). 


18-24. Tothe foregoing poem, which alone suits the situation as 
explained in verse 14, there has been added, probably at different 
times, a series of four short oracles dealing with other nations, 
neighbours of the Hebrews. The received text is again exceedingly 
corrupt, and the interpretation in consequence beset with insuper- 
able difficulties. 

18 f. An oracle concerning Edom, the text of which is in great 
disorder. Although it now consists of five lines, it was originally 
a quatrain like the third and fourth oracles of the series. The 
following is a rendering of what seems the most successful attempt 
at restoration (Von Gall, Zusammensetsung .. . d. Bileam-Perikope, 
38 Ff. ; cf. Gray, Numbers, Pp. 373, and Kittel, Bibl. Hebraica, tn loc.) : 
“And Edom’ shall become a possession, "And the survivor shall 
perish from Seir: But Israel doeth valiantly, And Jacob shall 
tread down his foes.’ The reference is probably to ae con- 
quest of Edom (2 Sam. viii. 13 f.). 

20. A cryptic oracle announcing the destruction of Amalek, 
with a play upon the words ‘ first’ and ‘last.’ 


NUMBERS 24. 21-24. JE 333 


And he looked on the Kenite, and took up his parable, 
and said, 
Strong is thy dwelling place, 
And thy nest is set in the rock. 
Nevertheless * Kain shall be wasted, 
b Until Asshur shall carry thee away captive. 
And he took up his parable, and said, 
Alas, who shall live when God ¢ doeth this ? 
But ships skad/ come from the coast of Kittim, 
And they shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, 
And he also shall come to destruction. 


® Or, the Kenttes > Or, How long? Asshur &c. 
: © Or, establisheth him 





21f. A quatrain devoted to the Kenites, who claimed to be 
descended from an eponymous ancestor, named Kain, and who 
are elsewhere, as here, associated with the Amalekites (xr Sam. 
xv. 6; Judges i. 16—reading ‘with Amalek’ for ‘with his 
people’). 

thy nest is set in the rock. The word for ‘nest’ (2é) con- 
tains a play on the ancestral name (Kain), while the reference is 
to the almost inaccessible rock-dwellings of the tribe (cf. Obad. 
3f.), perhaps in the neighbourhood of Arad in the Negeb (Judges, 
loc, cit.) as suggested by Ed. Meyer, Die Israeliten, p. 393 f. 

22. Until Asshur, &c.: rather, ‘how long? Asshur shall,’ 
&e. Asshur is not here Assyria, any more than in Gen. xxv. 18 
(R.V.), but another tribe of the Negeb, the Asshurim of Gen. xxv. 3 
(see Meyer, of. cit., p. 320). 

23 f£. The most enigmatic of all the oracles. The text seems 
beyond the reach of successful emendation (see Gray for various 
recent attempts). The latest is that of Gressmann (of. cit., p. 57), 
which runs thus: ‘ Alas, who shall live before Ishmael, And save 
himself alive from their hand: They oppress Asshur and oppress 
Eber, But they also shall come to destruction.’ 

24. from the coast of Kittim: render, ‘from the direction of 
Cyprus’; Kittim is the Greek Kition. In Dan. xi. 30 this line is 
applied to the galleys of Rome. 

Asshur... Eber. Here Asshur has been variously inter- 
preted as referring to the Asshurites of verse 22, to Assyria, and 
to the later Seleucid empire of Syria. Eber, the eponymous 
ancestor of the ‘ Ebrews’ (Gen. x. 11, xi. 14), is a complete enigma 
in this connexion. 


2i 


22 


23 


a ra 


334 NUMBERS 24. 25—25.3. JE 





25 And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to ~_ 
place: and Balak also went his way. 


25 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began ee 

2 commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab: for they 

called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and — 

3 the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And 

Israel *joined himself unto » Baal-peor: and the anger 
® Or, yoked > Or, the Baal of Peor See ch. xxiii. 28. 





25. The final parting of king and seer; see the note on 
XXiii. 25 f. 


(c) xxv. 1—xxvii. 23. A miscellaneous section containing the 
narrative of certain lapses of the Hebrews into immorality and idolatry 
(xxv), the taking of a second census (xxvi), the incident of the 
daughters of Zelophehad (xxvii. 1-11), and the appointment of 
Joshua to succeed Moses (12-23). 


Ch. xxv is made up of a short extract (verses 1-5) from JE, — 
and a Jarger extract from P. The former is itself composite; in 
one source (J) the Hebrews, after having entered into immoral — 
relations with the women of Moab, join them in the worship of 
Chemosh;; in the other (E), the local Baal of Mt. Peor is the object 
of their idolatrous worship (note also the divergent punishments 
in verses 4 and 5): In the extract from P (verses 6 ff.), on the 
other hand, a plague is raging in the Hebrew camp, and in the 
original narrative, the beginning of which has been omitted, the 
scene was probably laid in Midian. The elders of Midian, acting 
on the advice of Balaam (xxxi. 16), had apparently endeavoured 
to ruin Israel by immoral means (verse 18). The compiler has 
joined the two extracts on the ground that the sin was in either 
case connected with foreign women. > 

1. And Israel abode in Shittim: more precisely ‘in Abel- 
shittim,’ i.e. ‘the meadow of the acacia trees,’ the last halting- 
place of the Hebrews (xxxiii. 49) before they crossed the Jordan 
(Joshua ii. 1, iii. r). 

2. for they called: rather, ‘and they invited, tel coe, ‘ partici-_ 
pation in the sacrificial feasts is the sequel to the intimacy with 
the women, not the cause of it’ (Gray). For ‘their gods’ we 
should render ‘ their god,’ that is, Chemosh, the national deity of — 
the Moabites (xxi. 29). 

3. joined himself unto Baal-peor: from the parallel source. 
The worship was that of the local Baal of Mt. Peor (xxiii. 28); 
the apostasy in this case is not associated with sexual immorality, 


NUMBERS 25. 4-8. JEP 335 


of the Lorp was kindled against Israel. And the Lorp 4 
said unto Moses, Take all the chiefs of the people, and 
hang them up unto the Lorp before the sun, that the 
fierce anger of the Lorp may turn away from Israel. 
And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every 5 
one his men that have joined themselves unto Baal-peor. 
[P] And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and 6 
brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the 
sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation 
of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the 
door of the tent of meeting. And when Phinehas, the 7 
son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he 
rose up from the midst of the congregation, and took 
a spear in his hand ; and he went after the man of Israel 8 





4. hang them up unto the LORD before the sun. The nature 
of the punishment to be meted out to the worshippers of Chemosh 
(the connexion is with verse 2) is uncertain; some form of violent 
death, by impalement or otherwise, is clearly intended; cf. Cent. 
Bible on 2 Sam. xxi. 6, 9, where the verb is again used. 

5. The continuation of verse 3; the reference to the judges 
(Exod. xviii. 12 ff., E) suggests the source E; the penalty in any 
case is different from that of verse 4. ba 


6-15. P tells how the zeal of Phinehas, the son of the High 
Priest, in connexion with a flagrant case of immorality, was 
rewarded by the Divine promise that the priesthood should 
remain for ever in his family. The introduction, as has been 
already said, has been omitted by the compiler, and the story 
now opens while Moses and the congregation are engaged in 
humiliation and prayer before God on account of a plague that has 
been sent as punishment for a widespread immoral association 
with the women of Midian. x 

6. one of the children of Israel: Zimri, a ‘prince’ of one of 
the Simeonite clans (verse 14). 

7. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar. Phinehas (Heb. Pinias) is 
probably the Egyptian fe-nhes, ‘the dark-skinned’ (Zi. sub 
voce), and therefore one of the few Hebrew names that suggest an 
early connexion with Egypt. The name is found later in the 
family of Eli, the chief priest of Shiloh (1 Sam. iv. 4, 11). 


336 NUMBERS 25, 9-15. P 






into the * pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the’ 
man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So 
9 the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. And 
those that died by the plague were twenty and four 
thousand. f hal 
g And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, — 
the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath 
turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in — 
that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so 
| 

: 

: 


Io 


that I consumed not the children of Israel in my 
12 jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my 
13 covenant of peace: and it shall be unto him, and to his 
seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priest- 
hood ; because he was jealous for his God, and made 
14 atonement for the children of Israel. Now the name of © 
the man of Israel that was slain, who was slain with the 
Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince 
15 of a fathers’ house among the Simeonites. And the 
name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was — 
Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head of the people 
of a fathers’ house in Midian. 


8 Or, alcove 





11. he was jealous with my jealousy. Yahweh's ‘jealousy’ 
is His righteous anger and resentment when the worship which is 
due to Him alone is offered to false gods, or when His holiness is 
injured, as here, by the defiant conduct of Zimri within the sacred 
precincts of the camp. Phinehas, as it were, anticipated the 
Divine resentment at such dishonour by his zeal for Yahweh. 
Cf. Jehu’s words: ‘Come with me, and see my zeal [or jealousy] 
for Yahweh’ (2 Kings x. 16). 

13. the covenant of an everlasting priesthood. The dignity 
of the priesthood is to continue for ever in the family of Phinehas. 
Certainly the Zadokite priesthood of a later day traced their 
descent from Aaron through Eleazar and Phinehas (1 Chron. vi. 
3-14, 50-53; cf. Ezra vii. 1-6). 


NUMBERS 25. 16—26.4. P aay 


And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Vex the '® 
Midianites, and smite them: for they vex you with their us 
wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of 
Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the 
prince of Midian, their sister, which was slain on the day 
of the plague in the matter of Peor. 

And it-came to pass after the plague, that the Lorp 26 
spake unto Moses and unto Eleazar the son of Aaron 
» the priest, saying, Take the sum of all the congregation 2 
of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and 
upward, by their fathers’ houses, all that are able to go 
forth to war in Israel. And Moses and Eleazar the 3 
priest spake with them in the plains of Moab by the 
Jordan at Jericho, saying, Zake the sum of the people, 4 


16-18. This command to take vengeance on the Midianites for 
their attempt to lure the Hebrews to their ruin through the women 
(see above) is meant to prepare the way for ch. xxxi (PS), and 
may have stood there originally. 

17. Vex the Midianites: rather ‘make war upon,’ a strong 
term. The bulk of verse 18 is editorial, connecting the foregoing 
incident and plague of P with ‘the matter of Peor,’ i.e. the 
illicit worship of Baal-peor recorded by E (verse 3). 

Ch. xxvi is almost entirely occupied with details of a second 
census, both of the secular tribes and of the tribe of Levi, taken at 
the end of the period of the wanderings. The order of the former 
is here the same as in ch. i, except that the two tribes of Ephraim 
and Manasseh have changed places. Here, too, more details are 
given as to the subdivisions of the several tribes, with the excep- 
tion of Dan which, strangely enough, consists of but one large 
clan. Comparison with the numbers of ch. i shows that while 
the total of the secular tribes has slightly decreased, 601,730 com- 
pared with 603,550, seven of them show a larger or smaller 
increase. The changes are greatest in the case of Simeon, which 
has decreased by 62°5 percent., and of Manasseh, which has 
increased by neariy 62 percent. As regards the historicity of the 
numbers here given, the modern critical attitude is the same as 
was briefly set forth when dealing with the former census (see 
above, pp. 190 ff.). The scene of the census is laid in ‘the plains 
of Moab,’ opposite Jericho (verse 3, for which see on xxii. 1). 

3 f. The text is here in some disorder (note the italics supplied 
in verse 4). The words rendered ‘spake with them,’ it has been 

Z 

































338 NUMBERS 26. 5-12. a 


from twenty years old and upward; as the ORD 
manded Moses and the children of Israel, whi 
forth out of the land of Egypt. 
5 Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: the sons of Reub be 
of Hanoch, the family of the Hanochites: of Pallu, 
6 family of the Palluites: of Hezron, the family of 
7 Hezronites : of Carmi, the family of the Carmites. The 
are the families of the Reubenites: and they that y 
numbered of them were forty and three thousand : 
8 seven hundred and thirty. And the sons of Pa’ 
9 Eliab. And the sons of Eliab; Nemuel, and Dath 
and Abiram. ‘These are that Dathan and Abiram, w 7 
were called of the congregation, who strove agains 
Moses and against Aaron in the company of Kora A 
1o when they strove against the Lorp: and the earth 
opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together 
with Korah, when that company died; what time the 
fire devoured two hundred and fifty men, and 
ir became a sign. Notwithstanding the sons of Korah 
died not. ‘4 
12 The sons of Simeon after their families: of * Nemuel 


® In Gen. xlvi. 10, Ex. vi. 15, Jestuel. 


suggested, should be read ‘numbered them,’ omitting the irrele- 
vant ‘saying’ which follows. Again, ‘the children of Israel” i: 
not the object of the verb ‘commanded’ but the subject of a r 
sentence: ‘ Now the children of Israel, which... Egypt, were 
follows: Reuben,’ &c. 


8-10. If the main body of the chapter is from the penot 
these verses will be a later addition, since they presuppose 
narrative of ch. xvi in its present composite form. Some cri 
however, regard the present chapter as wholly P*. 

11 has all the appearance of a gloss inserted by a srases, 
a reminder that all Korah’s family cannot have perished s 
a certain temple guild of Levites—the ‘sons of Korah’ ve: a 
Psalms xlii-xlix and others—still bore his name (@ Chron. xx. 19), 


Y ita 


ie 


NUMBERS 26. 13-25. P 339 


the family of the Nemuelites: of Jamin, the family of 
the Jaminites: of #Jachin, the family of the Jachinites: 
of >Zerah, the family of the Zerahites: of Shaul, the 13 
family of the Shaulites. These are the families of the 14 
Simeonites, twenty and two thousand and two hundred. 
The sons of Gad after their families: of ¢Zephon, the 15 
family of the Zephonites: of Haggi, the family of the 
Haggites: of Shuni, the family of the Shunites: of 16 
4Qzni, the family of the Oznites: of Eri, the family 
of the Erites: of ¢Arod, the family of the Arodites: of 17 
Areh, the family of the Arelites. These are the families 1g 
of the sons of Gad according to those that were num- 
bered of them, forty thousand and five hundred. 
_ The sons of Judah, Er and Onan: and Er and Onan 19 
died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Judah 20 
after their families were; of Shelah, the family of the 
Shelanites : of Perez, the family of the Perezites: of 
Zerah, the family of the Zerahites. And the sons of 21 
Perez were; of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites: 
of Hamul, the family of the Hamulites. These are the 22 
families of Judah according to those that were numbered 
of them, threescore and sixteen thousand and five 
hundred. 

The sons of Issachar after their families: of Tola, 23 
the family of the Tolaites: of Puvah, the family of the 
Punites : of fJashub, the family of the Jashubites: of 24 
Shimron, the family of the Shimronites. These are the 25 
families of Issachar according to those that were num- 


@ In Chr. iv. 24, Jarib. b In Gen, xlvi. to, Zohar. ° In 
Gen. xlvi. 16, Ziphion. 4 In Gen. xlvi. 16, Ezbon. ° In Gen, 
xlvi. 16, Avodt. £ In Gen. xlvi. 13, Job. 


19. died in the land of Canaan: as related in Gen. xxxviii, 3 ff. 
Z2 


340 NUMBERS 26. 26-36. P 


bered of them, threescore and four thousand and three 
hundred. ie 

26 The sons of Zebulun after their families: of Sered, he 
family of the Seredites : of Elon, the family of the Elon- 

27 ites: of Jahleel, the family of the Jahleelites. ‘These ate 
the families of the Zebulunites according to those that 
were numbered of them, threescore thousand and five 
hundred. 

28 The sons of Joseph after their families: Manasseh and 

29 Ephraim. The sons of Manasseh: of Machir, the family 
of the Machirites : and Machir begat Gilead: of Gilead, 

30 the family of the Gileadites, These are the sons of 
Gilead : of * Iezer, the family of the Iezerites: of Helek, 

31 the family of the Helekites: and of Asriel, the family 
of the Asrielites: and of Shechem, the family of the 

32 Shechemites : and of Shemida, the family of the Shemida- 

33 ites: and of Hepher, the family of the Hepherites. And 
Zelophehad the son of Hepher had no sons, but 
daughters : and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad 
were Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. 

34 These are the families of Manasseh: and they that were 
numbered of them were fifty and two thousand and seven 
hundred. 

35 These are the sons of Ephraim after their families: of 
Shuthelah, the family of the Shuthelahites: of ® Becher, 
the family of the Becherites: of Tahan, the family of the 

36 Tahanites. And these are the sons of Shuthelah: of 


® In Josh, xvii. hay Abiezer. See Judg. vi. 11, 24, 34. 
> In x Chr. vii. 20, Bered. 
















33. See chs. xxvii and xxxvi. 

35. Becher and his descendants are here reckann as Ephraim- 
ites ; elsewhere (Gen. xlvi, 21; 2 Sam. xx, 1) they are represented 
as belonging to Benjamin. 


NUMBERS 26, 37-47. _P 341 


Eran, the family of the Eranites. These are the families 37 
of the sons of Ephraim according to those that were 
numbered of them, thirty and two thousand and five 
hundred. These are the sons of Joseph after their 
families, 

The sons of Benjamin after their families: of Bela, 38 
the family of the Belaites: of Ashbel, the family of the 
Ashbelites: of 2Ahiram, the family of the Ahiramites: 
of >Shephupham, the family of the Shuphamites: of 39 
Hupham, the family of the Huphamites. And the sons 4° 
of Bela were ¢Ard and Naaman: of Ard, the family of 
the Ardites: of Naaman, the family of the Naamites. 
These are the sons of Benjamin after their families: and 41 
they that were numbered of them were forty and five 
thousand and six hundred. 

These are the sons of Dan after their families: of 42 
4 Shuham, the family of the Shuhamites. These are the 
families of Dan after their families. All the families of 43 
the Shuhamites, according to those that were numbered 
of them, were threescore and four thousand and four 
hundred. 

The sons of Asher after their families: of Imnah, the 44 
family of the Imnites : of Ishvi, the family of the Ishvites : 
of Beriah, the family of the Beriites. Of the sons of 45 
Beriah : of Heber, the family of the Heberites : of Mal- 
chiel, the family of the Malchielites. And the name of 46 
the daughter of Asher was Serah. These are the families 47 
of the sons of Asher according to those that were 

8 In Gen. xlvi. 21, Eft in 1 Chr. viii. 1, Aharah, > In Gen. 


xlvi. 21, Muppim, and Huppim © In rt Chr. viii. 3, Addar. 
4 In Gen, xlvi. 23, Hushim. 


42 f. The single clan of Dan, Shuham, appears in Gen. xlvi. 23 
as Hushim, as noted in the margin, 









a Bo he. 
342 NUMBERS 26. 48-56. PB 


numbered of them, fifty and three thousand and four 
hundred, . 
48 The sons of Naphtali after their families: of Jabizeel,, 
the family of the Jahzeelites: of Guni, the family of th 
49 Gunites: of Jezer, the family of the Jezenitent of Shillem, 
so the family of the Shillemites. These are the families of 
Naphtali according to their families : and they that were 
numbered of them were forty and five thousand and four 
hundred. hh 
51 These are they that were numbered of the children | ‘of. 
Israel, six hundred thousand and a thousand sever” 
hundred and thirty. i 
And the Lorb spake unto Moses, saying, Unto these 
the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to 
54 the number of names. To the more thou shalt give the — 
more inheritance, and to the fewer thou shalt give the 
less inheritance: to every one according to those that — 
were numbered of him shall his inheritance be given. 
85 Notwithstanding the land shall be divided by lot: 
according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they’ 
56 shall inherit. According to the lot shall their inheritance 
be divided between the more and the fewer. 


53 


‘ants y 





52-56. General directions regarding the division ot the pro. 
mised land, here, somewhat unexpectedly, addressed to Soe 
How the writer intended the two theoretically irreconcilable prin-. 
ciples of the text to be applied, it is impossible to say. He is 
usually taken to mean that the geographical position of the ine 
tribes is to be determined by lot, but that the sizeof the;whole 
area of each tribe, and of the districts or portions thereof to be 
assigned to its component clans, is to be determined according to 
the census returns; hence the’ position of these verses in the 
present context. 

54. Render: ‘For the (tribe or clan that is) large, thou shalt 
make its inheritance large, and for that which is small thou shalt 
make its inheritance small; according to its census return shall its 
inheritance be given to each (tribe or clan),’ 


NUMBERS 26. :7-64. P 343 


And these are they that were numbered of the Levites 57 
after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Ger- 
shonites: of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites: of 
Merari, the family of the Merarites. These are the 58 
families of Levi: the family of the Libnites, the family 
of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family 
of the Mushites, the family of the Korahites. And 
Kohath begat Amram. And the name of Amram’s wife 59 
was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to 
Levi in Egypt: and she bare unto Amram Aaron and 
Moses, and Miriam their sister. And unto Aaron were 60 
born Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. And 61 
Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire 
before the Lorp. And they that were numbered of 62 
them were twenty and three thousand, every male from 
a month old and upward: for they were not numbered 
among the children of Israel, because there was no 
inheritance given them among the children of Israel. 

These are they that were numbered by Moses and 63 
Eleazar the priest; who numbered the children of Israel 
in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. But 64 
among these there was not a man of them that were 


57-62. The second numbering of the Levites, showing them to 
have increased from 22,000 to 23,000 (cf. iii. 14-39). 

58 represents a variant tradition—whether older or younger 
than the usual tradition of three divisions is a disputed point— 
according to which the priestly tribe of Levi consisted of five 
divisions. All the names are met with in other lists, but either 
as the grandsons or great-grandsons of Levi. Mushi, for example 
—a variant form of the name Mosheh (Moses)—appears in the 
genealogy of Exod. vi. 19 along with Mahli as the son of Merari 
and grandson of Levi (see further Gray, #n /oc.). 

61. See Lev. x. 1 f.; Num. iii. 4. 


63-65. A concluding paragraph, which, in view of verse 64, 
can scarcely have come from the same hand that wrote verse 4. 


344 NUMBERS 26. 65—27, 3. P 


numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest; who num- 
bered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. 
65 For the Lorp had said of them, They shall surely die in 
the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, 
save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshta the son 
of Nun. . | 
27 Then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad, the son 
of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son 
of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of 
Joseph: and these are the names of his daughters ; iH 
Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Mileah, and Tirzah. 
2 And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the 
priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, 
3at the door of the tent of meeting, saying, Our father 











Jt: G 


65. See xiv. 29 f., 38 (P). 

xxvii. 1-11. Promulgation of a new law of inheritanee, by 
which, in the event of a man dying without male issue, ‘his 
daughters shall inherit. The section clearly belongs to the 
Priests’ Code, but whether to P* or to a later stratum (P%) must 
be left an open question. For an interesting bee Xess to this 
oe see xxxvi. I ff. 

. the daughters of Zelophehad. The new legislation i is repre- 
ented as having arisen out of a special claim by the daughters of 
a certain Zelophehad (xxvi. 33), of the tribe of Manasseh, to be 
allowed to inherit their deceased father’s property. Before the 
exile, the Hebrew customary law of inheritance, in accord with 
primitive Semitic law in general (S. A. Cook, The Laws of Moses 
and the Code of Hammurabi, p. 145 f.), recognized only male 
heirs. In reality, however, the names of Zelophehad’s daughters 
here given are either names of Hebrew clans or place-names (see 
Gray in loc, and on xxvi. 33, and cf. Josh. xvii. 3-6 which records 
the carrying out of this law), and the present section illustrates 
the ‘familiar fact that in the early law of all nations necessary 
modifications on old law are habitually carried out by means of 
what lawyers call Jegal fictions’ (W. Robertson Smith, O7JC?, 
p. 384; cf. Maine, Ancient Law, ed. Pollock, p. 30 ff.). A still 
more evident illustration will meet us in xxxi. 27, ff, 


NUMBERS 27. 4-11, P> 345 


died in the wilderness, and he was not among the com- 
pany of them that gathered themselves together against 
the Lorp in the company of Korah: but he died in his 
own sin ; and he had no sons. Why should the name 4 
of our father be taken away from among his family, 
because he had no son? Give unto us a possession 
among the brethren of our father. And Moses brought 5 
their cause before the Lorp. And the Lorp spake unto 6 
Moses, saying, The daughters of Zelophehad speak 7 
right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an 
inheritance among their father’s brethren; and thou 
shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto 
them. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, 8 
saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall 
cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter. And if 9 
he have no daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance 
unto his brethren. And if he have no brethren, then ye 
shall give his inheritance unto his father’s brethren. And 1% 
if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his 
inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his 
family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be unto the 
children of Israel a statute of judgement, as the Lorp 
commanded Moses. 


= 


oO 


3. died in the wilderness ...in his own sin. Zelophehad 
merely shared in the general sentence of death pronounced in xiv. 
29 f. ; he had taken no part in the special revolt of a body of lay- 
men under Korah’s leadership (see above, pp. 278 ff.). 

5-11. Moses lays the case before God (cf. ix. 8, xv. 34) and is 
authorized to grant the crave of the petitioners (see Joshua xvil. 3 f. 
for the result), At the same time he is commanded to promulgate 
a new law of inheritance of still wider scope, covering not only 
the case of the man who leaves only female issue, but that of 
aman dying without issue of either sex. In the latter case the 
property goes to his brothers, whom failing, to his uncles on the 
father’s side, whom failing, to the next of kin (see further the notes 
on xxxyi, ft ff.), 


oy 


346 NUMBERS 27. 12-18, PB 


12 And the Lorp said unto Moses, Get thee 
mountain of Abarim, and behold the land Sri 1 
13 given unto the ernie of Israel. And when thou k has 





















the congregation, * to aac me at the waters be 
their eyes. (These are the waters of Meribah of Kades 
15 in the wilderness of Zin.) And Moses spake unto the 
16 Lor», saying, Let the Lorp, the God of the spirits of 
17 all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, whic 
may go out before them, and which may come in before 
them, and which may lead them out, and which may 
bring them in; that the congregation of the Lorp be 
18 not as sheep which have no shepherd. And the Lorp ; 
said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, 


® See ch. xx. 12, 1g. 





12-14. Preparatory to his death, Moses is commanded to: 
the land of promise, which he may not enter. In their pe 
context these verses are probably from the pen of the ee 
P’s own statement will then be found in the parallel passag 
Deut. xxxii. 48-52. 

12. this mountain of Abarim: the mountain-range in the 
north-west of Moab overlooking the north end of the Dead Sea. 
The particular summit of this range is given in Deut. xxxii. 49 as 
‘mount Nebo... which is over against Jericho,’ the modem, 
Neba (cf. note on Deut. xxxiv. x in Cent. Bible), @ 

14. in the strife (Heb. meéribath) of the cananaaeaaale a play. 
upon the name Meribath-Kadesh. For this name and for the 
exclusion of Moses and Aaron from Canaan, see the notes 


on XxX. I-I3. ‘¢ 


15-23. At Moses’ earnest request, his suecessor is iontalieniia ‘ 
the person of Joshua, who is subsequently set apart in the pre-— 
sence of the High Priest and the whole congregation, hee 

17. The expressions here used are a comprehensive indication © 
of the duties of the secular head of the community, with special | 
reference to the task of military leadership (t Sam, xviii. 13, 16; ; 
XXixX, 6). 


NUMBERS 27. 19—28. 2. P 347 


a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon 
him; and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before r9 
all the congregation; and give him a charge in their 
sight. And thou shalt put of thine honour upon him, 20 
that all the congregation of the children of Israel may 
obey. And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who 21 
shall inquire for him by the judgement of the Urim 
before the Lorp: at his word shall they go out, and at 
his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children 
of Israel with him, even all the congregation. And 22 
Moses did as the Lorp commanded him: and he took 
Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before 
all the congregation: and he laid his hands upon him, 23 
and gave hima charge, as the Lorp spake by the hand 
of Moses. 
And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Command 28 2 


21. With the passing of Moses the real head of the theocratic 
community, according to the theory of the priestly writer, is 
henceforth to be the High Priest. God will no longer com- 
municate with the secular leader directly, as hitherto with Moses, 
but indirectly through the medium of the sacred lot as manipulated 
by the High Priest. The explicit subordination of the secular to 
the religious head of the community, enjoined in the latter half 
of this verse, has been thought to furnish a clue to the date of the 
main body of P,i.e. P (see the Introduction to this commentary). 

by the judgement of the Urim: Urim alone here and 
1 Sam, xxviii. 6; elsewhere ‘the Urim and the Thummim,’ the 
mysterious apparatus for manipulating the sacred lot (Exod. 
xxviii. 30; Lev. viii. 5), See the writer’s art. in Hastings’s DB, 
iv. 838 ff. 

Judging from the analogy of xx. 23-29, we may Safely infer 
that P#, at this point, recorded the death of Moses, now trans- 
ferred to the closing chapter of Deuteronomy. The remainder 
of the Book of Numbers contains almost exclusively material from 
the secondary strata of the priestly legislation (P°). 


(d) xxviii-xxix. A table of the public offerings for the stated 
festivals, The calendar of sacred seasons, compiled from H and 
P£, which now forms Lev, xxiii, is here supplemented by an 
elaborate table of the various offerings to be presented on behalf 


a CT” ee? 


348 NUMBERS 28,2, PB 































the children of Israel, and say unto them, My 0 
my “food for my offerings made by fire, of a 
® Heb. bread. 


of the community at the several stated festivals throughout tl 
year. Beginning (xxviii. 1-8) with the statutory daily offe: 
the writer proceeds to the additional offerings for the sal 
(gf.), for the festivals of the New Moon (11-15), of Unleavened — 
Cakes (16-25), and of Weeks or Firstfruits (26-31), for the first 
day of the civil year (xxix. 1-6), for the Day of Atonement (7-11), a 
and finally for the great autumn festival of Booths (12-38). 
These two chapters, it need hardly be said, contain mate at ; 
the greatest value for the history of the ritual of sacrifice among © 
the Hebrews, and may be regarded as a reflection of the actual 
ritual of the second temple at the time when they were composed, , 
That they are later than the main body of P is now generally } 
admitted ; on the other hand, the provisions they contain for the 
daily offerings were in force before. the time of the Chronicler — 
(circa 300 B.c.), so that the date of the present section may with © 
great probability be set down as falling within the century be-— 
tween 400-300 B.c. (see the notes on xxviii. 3ff.). Inno other . 
part of the Pentateuch legislation is the gulf more apparent that — 
separates the formulated precision and sombre earnestness of the — 
later post-exilic worship from the spontaneity and joyousness of 
the worship of the period before the exile (cf. the remarks on 
p- 35 f. and Gray, Numbers, p. 407). The nearest parallel to 
this section is supplied by the ritual ordinances of Ezek. xlv. 18- 
xlvi. 15, although similar prescriptions for the offerings of "Private - 
individuals are found in the manual of sacrifice of Lev. _—_ ins 
Num. xv, and pula anaes i> 


The most striking feature bE the table is the prominence of ne 
sacred number seven, alike in the numbers of the victims, in- 
cluding the seventy bullocks of the original feast of Booths (see 
on xxix. 12 ff.), and in the duration of the feasts Nos. 4 and 8. 
The pre-eminence of the feast of Booths is apparent from the large 
total of 199 victims, including those of the supernumerary eighth 
day, but excluding those of the daily Sacrifice and of the sabbath — 
which fell within the octave. For the offerings here prescribed — 
are cumulative; e.g. Nos. 2 to 8 are all in addition to ‘No. ae 
while No. 6 is additional to Nos. 1 and 3. ‘ 


xxvili. tf. Introduction to this section. For the term oblation 
(korban), see on Lev. i. 2; ; my food, &c., on Ley. xxi, 6, iii, ef ; 
of a sweet savour, on Lev. i. 9, 


NUMBERS 28. 3,4. P 349 


savour unto me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in 
their due season. ® And thou shalt say unto them, This is 3 
the offering made by fire which ye shall offer unto the 
Lorp ; he-lambs of the first year without blemish, two 
day by day, for a continual burnt offering. The one 4 


* See Ex. xxix. 38-42. 





Bullocks.| Rams. | Lambs. | Goats. 














. Daily (Morning and Even- 





BH MACHINES ooo osc s saeco So sk 2 
2. Additional for Sabbaths ... 
a. brew Moons! 212.2. 0005..-0.. 2 I 7 I 
4. Feast of Unleavened Cakes, 
CACM GAY ook cesnpisizas- 2 I 7 I 
Total for seven days .. 14 7 49 7 
5. Feast of Weeks (Firstfruits) 2 I 7 I 
6. First day of 7th month 
(LS) ee Ra eR I I 7 I 
7. Day of Atonement (1oth of 
LEG 7 SRR I I 7 I 
8. Feast of Booths, 1st day... | 13 2 14 I 
” ” end ,, = cS 14 S 
” ” BU ins II 2 14 I 
” ” qth ,, Be = as s 
” ” 5th ,, 9 = a : 
” ” 6th ,, 8 2 “14 E 
” ” 7th’ ,, 7 2 14 Tt 
” ” 8th ,, I I 7 ft 
Total (15th to 22nd Tishri) 71 15 105 8 





(1) 3-8. The daily or perpetual (Heb. ¢a@mid, R.V. continual) 
offering, in later times termed ‘the Tamid.’ The Tamid, offered 
daily throughout the year, was the centre and core of the public 
worship of Judaism. As here prescribed (cf. Exod. xxix. 38-42; 
Lev. vi. 8-13), it consisted of the sacrifice of a yearling male lamb 


« 


350 NUMBERS 28. 5- 8. P 
































lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the , 
5 shalt thou offer “at even ; and the tenth part of an é 
of fine flour for a meal a mingled with the fo 
6 part of an hin of beaten oil. It is a continual b 
offering, which was ordained in mount Sinai for as 
7 savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lorp. A 
the drink offering thereof shall be the fourth part of 
hin for the one lamb: in the holy place shalt thou p 
8 out a drink offering of strong drink unto the Lorp. 4 
® Heb. between the two evenings. 


with an accompanying cereal offering (sinha) of fine flout making d 
with oil and a drink-offering of wine, offered in the early morning 
and repeated in the late afternoon (for details see the Mishnz 
treatise Tamid, translated in Barclay, The Talmud, Pp. 242 ff.). 
The present law was certainly authoritative in the time of th 
Chronicler (civca 300 B.c.), as is evident from 1 Chron, xvi. 40; 
2 Chron. xiii. 11, xxxi. 3. But under the monarchy the daily 
uffecing consisted of a burnt-offering in the morning and a cereal 
offering in the evening (2 Kings xvi. 15). Ezekiel also prescribes. 
a burnt-offering and a cereal offering, but both are to he aye in) 
together in the morning (Ezek. xlvi. 13-15). In the light of 
foregoing it is probable that Nehemiah (x. 33) also coos of but 
one offering of each kind. From these data it has been gen 
concluded that the present law which requires a combined burnt 
and cereal offering, both morning and evening, originated in the 
period between Nehemiah and the Chronicler; this likewise p 
vides an approximate date for the whole section (see above). 
5. As regards the quantities, here and in the sequel, the ephah, 
the standard dry measure, which was of the same content as re 
‘bath’ (6 hins) for liquids, contained originally about 65 pints, 
increased later to 71} pints. Therefore #5, 7%, and y%y of an epha 
may be roughly computed at 7, 14, and 21 pints respectively, and 
the hin at nearly 12 pints (see art. ‘ Weights and Measures’ bs 
Hastings’s DB. iv. 910-3). 
6. which was ordained in mount Sinai: a reference to 
Exod. xxix. 38 ff., but, as breaking the connexion between 5 and 
7, the verse is probably editorial. 
7. in the holy place: here exceptionally the ‘holy place? 
must denote ‘(within) the sacred court,’ where stood the altar of 
burnt-offering at the base of which the wine was poured aaa 
libation (see Ecclus. 1. 15). +e 
a drink offering of strong drink. Since the drink-offevin ng 


<o 
q 
+ 


NUMBERS 28. 9-14. P 351 


the other lamb shalt thou offer at even: as the meal 
offering of the morning, and as the drink offering thereof, 
thou shalt offer it, an offering made by fire, of a sweet 
savour unto the Lorp. 

And on the sabbath day two he-lambs of the first year 
without blemish, and two tenth parts of ax ephah of fine 
flour for a meal offering, mingled with oil, and the drink 
offering thereof: this is the burnt offering of every sab- 
bath, beside the continual burnt offering, and the drink 
offering thereof. ' 

And in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a 
burnt, offering unto the Lorp ; two young bullocks, and 
one ram, seven he-lambs of the first year without blemish ; 
and three tenth parts of az ephak of fine flour for a meal 
offering, mingled with oil, for each bullock ; and two 
tenth parts of fine flour for a meal offering, mingled with 


oil, for the one ram; and a several tenth part of fine. 


flour mingled with oil for a meal offering unto every 
lamb ; for a burnt offering of a sweet savour, an offering 
made by fire unto the Lorp. And their drink offerings 
shall be half an hin of wine for a bullock, and the third 
part of an hin for the ram, and the fourth part of an hin 


always consisted of grape-wine, the Hebrew word shékar, which 
elsewhere denotes all other sorts of alcoholic liquors (see on vi. 3), 
must here, by exception, signify ‘wine.’ As so used here, the 
word may be a Babylonism (the shikaru of the Babylonian ritual). 
Have we here a hint of the Babylonian origin of this section ? 


(2) 9 £. Additional offerings for the sabbath. It is not clear 
from verse to whether these are intended to be presented along 
with the ordinary morning and evening offerings, or, as verse 23 
suggests, as additions to the morning Tamid only. 


(3) 11-15. The offerings for the festival of the New Moon on 


the first day of each month. The antiquity and wide prevalence 
of this festival are attested by the references to it in the older 


9 


pie) 


14 


literature (Amos viii. 5; Hos. ii. 13; Isa. i. 13; 1 Sam. xx. 5 ffi— 


here as a family or clan festival). Nevertheless it is ignored by 


452 NUMBERS 28. 15-25. 




























for a lamb: this is the burnt o , 
15 throughout the months of the year, 4 Ar do 
for a sin offering unto the LorD; it shall. 
beside the continual burnt offering, and the 
offering thereof. . oa ” 
16 And in the first month, on the fourteenth day 
17 month, is the Lorn’s passover. And on the fift 
day of this month shall be a feast: seven days 
18 unleavened bread be eaten. In the first day shall 
19 holy convocation ; ye shall do no servile work : 
shall offer an offering made by fire, a burnt offering 
the Lorp ; two young bullocks, and one ram, and s 
he-lambs a the first year: they shall be unto you 
20 out blemish : and their meal offering, fine flour m mil 
with oil: three tenth parts shall ye offer for a p 
21 and two tenth parts for the ram; a io 
22 shalt thou offer for every lamb of the seven la 
one he-goat for a sin offering, to make atone 
23 you. Ye shall offer these beside the burnt: “off 
the morning, which is for a continual burnt 
24 After this manner ye shall offer daily, for seven 
food of the offering made by fire, of a sweet 
unto the Lorp: it shall be offered beside the co 
25 burnt offering, and the drink offering thereof. Ar 


® Heb. bread. aa 
: 


the earlier legislators, doubtless on account of its associatio 
the widespread worship of the moon among the Semites. 
is the first to give it a place in the recognized calendar o 
festivals (xlvi. 3, 6 f., cf. the incidental mention, Num. x. 


(4) 16-25. The special offerings for the seven days 
of Unleavened Cakes (Mazzoth). Several of the verses a 
from Lev. xxiii, 5-8. 

18. an holy convocation. ..no servile work. 
Ley. xxiii. 2, 7. Contrast the command of xxix. 7 be 


Bay 2 


NUMBERS 28. 26—29.3. P 353 


the seventh day ye shall have an holy convocation; ye 
shall do no servile work. 

Also in the day of the firstfruits, when ye offer a new 26 
meal offering unto the Lorp in your feast of weeks, ye . 
shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile 
work; but ye shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet 27 

‘savour unto the Lorp; two young bullocks, one ram, 
seven he-lambs of the first year ; and their meal offering, 28 
fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for each 
bullock, two tenth parts for the one ram, a several tenth 29 
part for every lamb of the seven lambs ; one he-goat, to 30 
make atonement for you. Beside the continual burnt 3! 
offering, and the meal offering thereof, ye shall offer 
them (they shall be unto you without blemish), and their 
drink offerings. 

And in the seventh month, on the first day of the 29 
month, ye shall have an holy convocation ; ye shall do 
no servile work : it is a day of blowing of trumpets unto 
you. And ye shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet 2 
savour unto the LorpD; one youmg bullock, one ram, 
seven he-lambs of the first year without blemish: and 
their meal offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three 


w 





- 

(5) 26-31. The special offerings for ‘the day of Firstfruits,’ 
a name not found again for the festival which originally marked 
the close of the grain harvests (barley and wheat), and is else- 
where termed ‘the feast of harvest’ (Exod. xxiii. 16), and ‘the 
feast of weeks’ (ib. xxxiv, 22} cf. verse 26 here ‘in your [feast 
of] weeks’). Cf. throughout Ley. xxiii. 15 ff., and see the note on 
verses 18-20 there. 

2'7. At the close of this verse insert the words within parentheses 
in verse 31, which have accidentally dropped out of their proper 
place (cf. close of verse 19). 


_ (6) xxix. 1-6. The additional offerings for the first day of the 
seventh month (Tishri), here termed ‘the day of the trumpet- 
_ blast’ (cf. Lev. xxiii. 24, and note p. 155), the New Year’s Day of 


Aa 























354 NUMBERS 29, 4-12. P 


tenth parts for the bullock, two tenth peal 

4 and one tenth part for every lamb of the seven 
5 and one he-goat for a sin offering, to make atonement 
6 you: beside the burnt offering of the new moon, and 
meal offering thereof, and the continual burnt 
and the meal offering thereof, and their drink offerings 
according unto their ordinance, for a sweet savour, an 
offering made by fire unto the Lorp. wee 

7 And on the tenth day of this seventh month a shall 
have an holy convocation ; and ye shall afflict your sc 

8 ye shall do no manner of world but ye shall offer a bur 
offering unto the Lorp for a sweet savour; one vill 
bullock, one ram, seven he-lambs of the first year ; t 

9 shall be unto you without blemish : and their meal offer 
ing, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for thi 
to bullock, two tenth parts for the one ram, a several tent 
part for every lamb of the seven lambs: one he-goat fo 
11 asin offering; beside the sin offering of atonement, an 
the continual burnt offering, and the meal offering the 
of, and their drink offerings. ‘ 
12 And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month 4 
shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no ser 
work, and ye shall keep a feast unto the ios eV: 





the civil year. The seventh month of the ecclesiastical year, th oy 
first of the civil year, was the festival month par excellence. 


, 


(7) 7-11. The Day of Atonement and its special offerings apa 
from tHlave prescribed for the Tamid, and for the special erer ie 
from which this day, the tenth of Tishri, derived its name ( ‘Lev 
Xvi, xxiii. 26-32). 

7. ye shall do no manner of work. The abstention from 
is to be absolute as on the sabbath, not partial as in xxviii. 1 
verses 12, 35 below; cf. Lev. xxiii. 28. 


(8) 12-38. ‘The offerings for the’ original feast of ” 
(Tabernacles), which lasted seven days from the 
atst of Tishri inclusive, followed (35-38) by those 


NUMBERS 29. 3-25. P 355 


days: and ye shall offer a burnt offering, an offering 13 


made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LorpD; thirteen 
young bullocks, two rams, fourteen he-lambs of the first 
year; they shall be without blemish: and their meal 
offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for 
every bullock of the thirteen bullocks, two tenth parts 
for each ram of the two rams, and a several tenth part 
for every lamb of the fourteen lambs: and one he-goat 
for a sin offering ; beside the continual burnt offering, the 
meal offering thereof, and the drink offering thereof. 

And on the second day ye shali offer twelve young 
bullocks, two rams, fourteen he-lambs of the first year 
without blemish : and their meal offering and their drink 
offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, 
according to their number, after the ordinance : and one 
he-goat for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt 
offering, and the meal offering thereof, and their drink 
offerings. 

And on the third day eleven bullocks, two rams, four- 
teen he-lambs of the first year without blemish ; and their 
meal offering and their drink offerings for the bullocks, 
for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their num- 
ber, after the ordinance: and one he-goat for a sin 
offering ; beside the continual burnt offering, and the 
meal offering thereof, and the drink offering thereof. 

And on the fourth day ten bullocks, two rams, fourteen 
he-lambs of the first year without blemish:‘their meal 
offering and their drink offerings for the bullocks, for the 
rams, and for the lambs, according to their number, after 


the ordinance : and one he-goat for a sin offering ; beside 


numerary eighth day, for which see above, p. 156 f. The table 


given above shows the massing of sacrificial victims which marked 


this festival, It will be noted that while the other victims re- 
AR 2 


14 


17 


8 


- 


19 


20 
21 


22 


23 
24 


25 


356 NUMBERS 29. 26-37. P 


the continual burnt offering, the meal offerin 
and the drink offering thereof. 
26 And onthe fifth day nine bullocks, two rams, fou 
27 he-lambs of the first year without blemish: and thei 
meal offering and their drink offerings for the bullocks 
for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their nur 
28 ber, after the ordinance: and one he-goat for a sin 
offering ; beside the continual burnt offering, and the 
meal offering thereof, and the drink offering thereof. 
29 +~And on the sixth day eight bullocks, two rams, four 
20 teen he-lambs of the first year without blemish: and thei 
meal offering and their drink offerings for the bullock: 
for the rams, and for the lambs, according to I 
31 number, after the ordinance : and one he-goat for a sin 
offering ; beside the continual burnt offering, the mea 
offering thereof, and the drink offerings thereof. 
32. And on the seventh day seven bullocks, two ran 
33 fourteen he-lambs of the first year without blemish; an 
their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bu 






















34 number, after the ordinance: and one he-goat for a si 
offering ; beside the continual burnt offering, the me 
offering thereof, and the drink offering thereof. 4 

35 On the eighth day ye shall have a “solemn assembly 

36 ye shall do no servile work: but ye shall offer a bun 
offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour un 
the Lorp : one bullock, one ram, seven he-lambs of # 

37 first year without blemish: their meal offering and th the ( 
drink offerings for the bullock, for the ram, ae be | 


® See Lev. xxiii. 36. 


mained the same through the first seven days, a: 
bullocks diminished throughout by one, making a total of ne 


* 


NUMBERS 29. 3830.2. P 357 


lambs, shall be according to their number, after the 
ordinance: and one he-goat for a sin offering ; beside 38 
the continual burnt offering, and the meal offering 
thereof, and the drink offering thereof. 

These ye shall offer unto the Lorp in your set feasts, 39 
beside your vows, and your freewill offerings, for your 
burnt offerings, and for your meal offerings, and for your 
drink offerings, and for your peace offerings. *And Moses 40 
told the children of Israel according to all that the Lorp 
commanded Moses. 

And Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes of the 30 
children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the 
Lorp hath commanded. When a man voweth a vow 2 
unto the Lorp, or sweareth an oath to bind his soul 
with a bond, he shall not » break his word 3 he shall do 


* (Ch. xxx. 1 in Heb.} > Heb. profane. 


39 f. The subscription or colophon of the section emphasizing 
the fact that all the preceding offerings are public sacrifices on 
behalf of the community, and take no account of the large variety 
of private offerings, which may be presented by individuals or 
families. 

(e) xxx. The validity of women's vows. 

This chapter, which forms an independent section of the later 
legislation, is supplementary both to the general law of Lev. xxvii, 
and to the more special law of the Nazirite vow, Num. vi. 1g ff. 
The introductory formula (see below), peculiarities of phraseology 
and the general style compel the attribution to P* rather than 
to P&, The persons whose vows are here dealt with are of two 
classes: (@) persons sui iurvis, viz. men, understood to be of age 
(verse 2), and widows and divorced wives (9); and (6) persons - 
not sui suvis but under the tutelage of fathers or husbands, viz. 
young unmarried women (3-5), women married while under 
a vow (6-8) and married women generally (10-15). 

1. Note the absence of the familiar formula of P?: ‘ And Yahweh 
spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel’; 
also the expression, ‘the heads of the tribes,’ &c., found-only 
here in the Pentateuch. 

2. to bind his soul with a bond: rather ‘to bind himself 



























358 | NUMBERS 30.3% B 


~ ey 
3 according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth. 
when a woman voweth a vow unto the Lorp, and bin 
herself by a bond, being in her father’s house, in 


= 


4 youth ; and her father heareth her vow, and her 
wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her 
holdeth his peace at her: then all her vows shall s 
and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul 

5 stand. But if her father disallow her in the day that 
heareth ; none of her vows, or of her bonds wherew 
she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and the 

6 shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her. / 
if she be sarried to a husband, while her vows are upon 
her, or the rash utterance of her lips, wherewith she hath 

7 bound her soul; and her husband hear it, and hold his 
peace at her in the day that he heareth it: then her vows 
shall stand, ‘and her bonds wherewith she hath bound 

8 her soul shall stand. But if her husband disallow her m 


by a pledge of abstinence.’ The terminology of this chaj 
is singular in distinguishing between a positive and a neg: 
vow. By the former, a person binds himself to do or give son 
thing, by the latter to abstain from doing or enjoying some 
In the earlier terminology both are included under the gen 
term ‘vow’ (neder), which is applied both to the vow of a Jepht 
or a Hannah, and to the vow of the Nazirite which was p 
a vow of abstinence. Here, however, the term ‘vow’ is cor 
to the former species of pledge, while the pledge of absti: 
is denoted by the unique term ‘tss@r, rendered ‘bond.’ A 
sui iurts is bound under all circumstances to perform bis vow anc 
to keep his pledge of abstinence. “ne 


3-5. The vows and pledges of a young unmarried woman st till 
under her father’s guardianship. 

4. and her father heareth her vow: a mistedtithis? rende eri 
the context requires: ‘and her father comes to hear of her vo’ 
(cf. verse 8). When this happens, it may be some time after the 
vow has been formally uttered, the father—in other cases, 
husband—must then and there interpose with his veto, ifhe di dis- 
approves of the vow, or ‘ for ever hold his peace.’ ts i 


6-8 The case of a young woman who takes a vow or pledge 


NUMBERS 30. 9-15. P 359 


the day that he heareth it ; then he shall make void her 
vow which is upon her, and the rash utterance of her 
lips, wherewith she hath bound her soul: and fhe Lorp 


shall forgive her. But the vow of a widow, or of herg 


that is divorced, even every thing wherewith she hath 
. bound her soul, shall stand against her. And if shet 
vowed in “her husband’s house, or bound her soul by 
a bond with an oath, and her husband heard it, and held 1 
his peace at her, and disallowed her not; then all her 
vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she bound 


° 


= 


her soul shall stand. But if her husband made them 1a 


null and void in the day that he heard them; then 
whatsoever proceeded out of her lips concerning her 
vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not 
stand: her husband hath made them void; and the 
Lorp shall forgive her. Every vow, and every binding 
oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or 
her husband may make it void. But if her husband 
altogether hold his peace at her from day to day; then 
he establisheth all her vows, or all her bonds, which are 
upon her: he hath established them, because he held 
his peace at her in the day that he heard them. But if 1 
he shall make them null and void after that he hath 





while under her father’s tutelage without the latter intervening ; 
when she passes at marriage under her husband’s guardianship, 
the latter has the right of veto under the same limitation as before. 

9. This verse, in which widows and divorced wives are uncon- 
ditionally bound, as being syf iuris, comes in awkwardly at this 
point, and may have got displaced from a .position after verse 15, 
or it may be a later addition to the original law. 


zto-15. The case of married women generally, the natural con- 
tinuation of 6-8. 

13. every binding oath to afflict the soul: the latter ex- 
pression elsewhere denotes ‘to fast’ (see on Lev. xvi. 29); here 
it denotes any and every form of abstinence. 


coal 


lal 


3 


4 


2 


° 


360 NUMBERS 30, 16—81, 2. -P 


16 heard them ; then he shall bear her iniquity. These are 

the statutes, which the Lorp commanded Moses, between 

a man and his wife, between a father and his daughter, 
being in her youth, in her father’s house. , 

812 And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Avenge the 

children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou 


15. he shall bear her iniquity. When the husband interposes 
with his veto at the proper time no guilt is incurred by either 
party; but if, at a later time, he illegally vetoes his wife’s vow, 
the guilt incurred falls not upon her but upon her husband. 


(f) xxxi. A holy war against Midian, and legislation based 
thereon. Y 
Moses is commanded to organize an expedition for the pur- 
pose of executing ‘the Lorp’s vengeance on Midian.’ For this 
jihad, or holy war, an army of 12,000 men is sent out under the 
leadership of Phinehas, the priest—Joshua is nowhere mentioned 
—with the extraordinary result that the whole adult male popu- 
lation of Midian is exterminated and their homes burnt without 
the loss of a single man of the Hebrew army! (1-12, 49), On the 
return of the latter with their spoil of persons and property, 
Moses commands the immediate execution of all the male children 
and of all the Midianite women with the exception of those still 
virgin (13-18). On this follows a couple of legal enactments, the 
first of which prescribes the ceremonial purifications necessary 
after a campaign (19-24), while the second lays down the prin- — 
ciples which are henceforth to regulate the division of the spoils — 
of war (25-54). or 
In this chapter we have one of the latest additions to the com- — 
plex priestly legislation of the Pentateuch. The story of this 
wonderful crusade is not history—nor was it seriously intended 
to be taken for history, which from the apologetic standpoint 
is a distinct gain—but an illustration of the method by which 
the later Jewish authorities sought to invest ceftain laws ¥ 
a more authoritative sanction by providing them with a Mosaic — 
precedent. Thus there is unimpeachable authority for believing — 
that the law of the equal division of the booty taken in war WaS 
first introduced by David (1 Sam. xxx. 24f.): here, by a recog- 
nized ‘legal fiction’ (see reference to OTC? above, p. , it is 
attributed to Moses (see further of. cit. 386 f. ; ef. Gray, Numsbers, 
pp. 418 ff., who thinks that ‘though as a whole unhistorical, the 
narrative may and doubtless does contain some traditional ele-- 
ments, such as the names of the five kings’). : 





NUMBERS 531. 3-12. P 361 


‘8 
be gathered unto thy people. And Moses spake unto 3 
the people, saying, Arm ye men from among you for the 
war, that they may go against Midian, to execute the 
Lorp’s vengeance on Midian. Of every tribe a thou- 4 
sand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to 
the war. So there were delivered, out of the thousands 5 
of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand 
armed for war. And Moses sent them, a thousand of 6 
every tribe, to the war, them and Phinehas the son 
of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the vessels of the 
sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand. 
And they warred against Midian, as the LorD com- 7 
manded Moses; and they slew every male. And they 8 
slew the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain; 
Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the five 
kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew 
with the sword. And the children of Israel took captive 9 
the women of Midian and their little ones ; and all their 
cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods, they took 
for a prey. And all their cities in the places wherein 10 
they dwelt, and all their encampments, they burnt with 
fire. And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both 11 
of man and of beast. And they brought the captives, 12 
and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and unto 
Eleazar the priest, and xnto the congregation of the 
children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, 
which are by the Jordan at Jericho. 


3. the LORD’S vengeance on Midian: see xxv. 16-18, and 
the notes on verses 3-11 of that chapter. 

6. with the vessels of the sanctuary: also rendered, ‘the furni- 
ture of the sanctuary’ (iv. 15). Can the author of this Midrash have 
intended the ark to take the field in this holy war (see on x. 35 f.)? 
The words, however, may also be rendered ‘ with the holy (i.e. 
priestly) garments.’ . For the trumpets see x. 9 above. 


362 NUMBERS 81. 13-19. (3 






13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, pe all the 
of the congregation, went forth to meet them he 
14 the camp. And Moses was wroth with the officers of 
the host, the captains of thousands and the captains of 
hundreds, which came from the service of the war. 
15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the 
16 women alive? Behold, these caused the children of 
Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass 
against the Lorp in the matter of Peor, and so the 
17 plague was among the congregation of the Lorp. Now 
therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill — 
every woman that hath known man by lying with him. 
18 But all the women children, that have not known man — 
19 by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. And 
encamp ye without the camp seven days: whosoever — 





13-18. Moses is indignant that the women in particular were 
spared, since these were the cause of Israel’s fall with its fatal 
results (xxv. 8 f.), and commands all the survivors, male and 
female, with the exception of the female children and the virgines 
intactae, to be slain forthwith. 

16. in the matter of Peor: perhaps editorial, both here and 
in xxv. 18, since there was no historical connexion between the 
apostasy to the Moabite Baal and the sin of the Midianite women j 
Sas on Pp. 334). if 

That this total extirpation of the Midianites belongs to the. 
an of pious imagination rather than of sober history is shown 
by the narrative ‘of Judges vi-viii. ? 


19-24. Regulations for the purification of the warriors, their 
garments, and all their impedimenta. This custom of the purifi- — 
cation of warriors after battle has many and widespread prelate 
among primitive peoples (see Frazer, Golden Bough, i. 331 
Gray, op. cit., p. 243f.; Farnell, The Evolution of Religion, p. 94° ). 

19 f. The provisions of this enactment resemble those of xix. 





» uk tel 


1 Dr. Farnell cites the case of a North American tribe of ‘india 
which ‘ was extirpated because it needed a month to wipe off the 
stain of a single conflict, while their enemies needed [as heh only a 
week for that purpose, and therefore had the aivepiae of three 
weeks’ start in preparing for the next attack!’ ia 


NUMBERS 831. 20-26. P 363 


hath killed any person, and whosoever hath touched any 
‘ slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the 
seventh day, ye and your captives. And as to every 
garment, and all that is made of skin, and all work of 
goats’ Hair, and all things made of wood, ye shall purify 
yourselves. And Eleazar the priest said unto the men 
of war which went to the battle, This is the statute of 
the law which the Lorp hath commanded Moses : how 
beit the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, 
and the lead, every thing that may abide the fire, ye 
shall make to go through the fire, and it shall be clean; 
nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of ®separa- 
tion: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make to 
go through the water. And ye shall wash your clothes 
on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward 
ye shall come into the camp. 

And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Take the 
sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and of 

® Or, impurity ; 





12-22, also belonging to late strata of P. To ‘purify’ is here, as 
there, literally to ‘un-sin,’ for which see on Lev. iv, 3. 


21-24. Additional, and probably later, instructions on the same 
subject given by Eleazar. The most striking feature of these 
additional regulations is that after ‘everything that may abide 
the fire’? has been purified by this meditim, it must be further 
‘un-sinned’ by means of the ‘ water for impurity’ (see on xix.9)— 
a seemingly unnecessary procedure which has led many to regard 
the introduction of the latter cathartic as a later gloss (cf. follow- 
ing note). 


23. ye shall make to go through the water: rather ‘through 
water,’ no doubt ‘living’ or running water (Lev. xiv. 5), but not 
the special ‘water of separation.’ Probably only the two ordinary 
media of lustration, fire and water, were mentioned in the original 
law. For the universal use of these media see Tylor, Primitive 
Culture, 3rd ed., pp. 429 ff. : 


25-31. A precedent is set up to determine the principle on 
which the spoils of war, so far as female captives and cattle are 


bo 
‘ 


21 


22 


23 


25 
26 


364 NUMBERS 31. 27-32. P ‘iy 


beast, thou, and Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the 
7 fathers’ Houses of the congregation: and divide the prey 
into two parts; between the men skilled in war, that — 
28 went out to battle, and all the congregation: and levy — 
a tribute unto the Lorp of the men of war that went out 
to battle: one soul of five hundred, do¢h of the persons, : 





and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the flocks: 
29 take it of their half, and give it unto Eleazar the priest, 
30 for the Lorn’s heave offering. And of the children of 
Israel’s half, thou shalt take one drawn out of every fifty, 
of the persons, of the beeves, of the asses, and of the 
flocks, even of all the cattle, and give them unto the 
Levites, which keep the charge of the tabernacle of the 
Lorp. And Moses and Eleazar the priest°did as the 
Lorp commanded Moses. Now the prey, over and — 
above the booty which the men of war took, was six 
hundred thousand and seventy thousand and five thou- 


~ 


3 
3 





concerned, are henceforth to be divided. These are first of all — 
divided numerically into two halves, one to go to the actual com- 
batants, the other to the rest of the ‘congregation’ who have 
remained in the camp (cf. 1 Sam. xxx. 24 f.; also Joshua xxii. 
8 end). From each of these moieties a tax is to be levied for the 
maintenance of the clergy; ;4,th, or 3th per cent., of the soldiers’ 
share is to be a contribution to Yahweh for the support of the 
priests; while J,th, or 2 per cent., of the congregation’s share is 
appointed for the support of the more numerous body of Levites. 

29. for the LORD’S heave offering: rather, ‘as a (special) 
contribution to Yahweh’ (see on Lev. vii. 14). In verses 28 and 
41 it is called a ‘ tribute,’ or rather a ‘ tax.’ 

30. which keep the charge, &c. See oni. 53. 


32-47. The carrying out of the preceding regulations. 

32. over and above the booty: render: ‘ which remained of 
the booty,’ after the massacre ordered in verse 17, and after de- 
ducting the animals that had died or been killed for food on the 
way. The enormous and indeed impossible totals may be here ~ 
set down, viz: small cattle, including goats as well as the ‘sheep’ 
of the text, 675,000; neat cattle or ‘beeves,’ 72,000; asses, 
61,000; and virgins, 32,000 


NUMBERS 31. 33-49. P 365 


sand sheep, and threescore and twelve thousand beeves, 33 
and threescore and one thousand asses, and thirty and 34 
two thousand persons in all, of the women that had not 
known man by lying with him. And the half, which was 36 
the portion of them that went out to war, was in number 
three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven 
thousand and five hundred sheep: and the Lorp’s 37 
tribute of the sheep was six hundred and threescore and 
fifteen. And the beeves were thirty and six thousand ; 38 
of which the Lornp’s tribute was threescore and twelve. _ 
And the asses were thirty thousand and five hundred ; of 39 
which the Lorn’s tribute was threescore and one. And 4° 
the persons were sixteen thousand ; of whom the Lorp’s 
tribute was thirty and two persons. And Moses gave 4! 
-the tribute, which was the Lorn’s heave offering, unto 
Eleazar the priest, as the LorpD commanded Moses. 
And of the children of Israel’s half, which Moses divided 42 
off from the men that warred, (now the congregation’s 43 
half was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand, 
seven thousand and five hundred sheep, and thirty and 44 
six thousand beeves, and thirty thousand and five hundred 45_ 
asses, and sixteen thousand persons ;) even of the children 4° 
of Israel’s half, Moses took one drawn out of every fifty, ~ 
both of man and of beast, and gave them unto the Levites, 
which kept the charge of the tabernacle of the Lorp; as 
the Lorp commanded Moses. And the officers which 48 
were over the thousands of the host, the captains of thou- 
sands, and the captains of hundreds, came near unto 
Moses: and they said unto Moses, Thy servants have 49 
taken the sum of the men of war which are under our 








48-54. Asa ransom for their lives the officers present an offer- 
ing to Yahweh, consisting of the various gold ornaments that 
formed their share of the general loot. 


50 


_ 


5 


3 and fifty shekels. (>For the men of war had taken booty, 


366 NUMBERS 31. 50-54. P 





















charge, and there lacketh not one man of us. And we 
have brought the Lorp’s oblation, what every man ha 

gotten, of jewels of gold, ankle chains, and brace 
signet-rings, earrings, and *armlets, to make atonement 
for our souls before the Lorp. And Moses and Eleazar 
the priest took the geld of them, even all wrought jewels. a 
And all the gold of the heave offering that they offered 
up to the Lorp, of the captains of thousands, and of the © 
captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred 


every man for himself.) And Moses and Eleazar the 
priest took the gold of the captains of thousands and of 
hundreds, and brought it into the tent of meeting, for 
a memorial for the children of Israel before the LorD. — 


. irl 
® Or, necklaces ‘ » See ver, 32. “e 





50. of jewels of gold: rather ‘ of gold ornaments,’ a compre- 
hensive expression of which the particulars follow, corresponding 
to the ‘ wrought jewels,’ rather ‘ornaments’ or ‘ objects of art,’ 
of the following verse. 
ankle chains: really ‘armlets,’ or arm-bands, an ornam 
worn on the upper part of the arm, see on 2 Sam. i. 10 ( 
Bible). The meaning of the word rendered ‘ armlets’ (marg. = 
laces) in the text is unknown. See further the writer’s 
‘Ornaments’ in Hastings’s DB. (1909). : 
to make atonement (Aapper) for our souls: render ‘to be 
a ransom for our lives’; the idea is the same as in Exod. xxx. 
where the corresponding substantive (Répher) is used 
Bennett, Cent. Bible, in loc.). The officers had risked the D 
displeasure in taking a census of their men! ‘ 

52. The value in sterling money of 16,750 gold shekels, at the 
rate of 41 shillings to the shekel (see Hastings’s DB. iii. 419), 
is approximately £34,340,! 

53. is probably a marginal gloss referring to the share of the 
common soldiers in the loot (Judges viii. 24 ff.), and not, as the: 
margin suggests, to the spoil of verse 32. : 

54. for a memorial, &c.: rather ‘for a remembrance,’ 


1 In Kautzsch, Die Heilige Schrift d. A.T. (1908), in loc., the 
value is wrongly given as ‘over 43,500 marks’ = £2,175, the value of 


e 


, the corresponding number of si/ver shekels. 


/ NUMBERS 32.1,2. P 367 


Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad 32 


had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw 
the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, 
the place was a place for cattle; the children of Gad and 
the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and 
to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the con- 


Yahweh may be reminded. of His people, see on x. to (cf. note 
on v. 15). 


(g) xxxii. The tribes of Reuben and Gad (and part of Manasseh) 
are allotted territory east of the Jordan (cf. Deut. iii. 12 ff). - 

The pastoral tribes of Gad and Reuben approach Moses with 
the request to be allowed to settle in the newly-conquered terri- 
tory eastof the Jordan. Moses, at first indignant at their apparent 
selfishness, afterwards grants their request on their undertaking 
to assist the remaining tribes in their conquest of the country 
west of the Jordan. The association of ‘the half tribe of 
Manasseh’ (verse 33) with the two tribes above named is due to 
an editor, who wished to add a separate extract telling in reality 
of the independent conquests of the three Manassite clans of 
Machir, Jair, and Nobah (39-42). The main body of the chapter 
(1-32, 34-38) is best regarded as a free composition from the pen 
of a late priestly writer, working from older materials in JE and 
P. See C-H. Hex. ii. 239 for a summary of the ‘many conflict- 
ing phenomena,’ which are doubtless due to the fact that the 
original sources reflected the geographical position of the tribes 

“named at different epochs of their history. The arts, ‘ Gad,’ 
‘Manasseh,’ ‘ Reuben,’ in the standard dictionaries should also be 
consulted. 

1. Reuben ... Gad: the normal order according to the 
genealogical tradition, but elsewhere in this chapter the order is 
Gad, Reuben. The latter tribe lost its pre-eminence at an early 
period, and ultimately its individuality. 

the land of Jazer. See on xxi. 24; cf. verses 3, 35 below. 

the land of Gilead. Probably no O.T. geographical term is 
so elastic as Gilead (see Gray, i /oc., and the dictionaries), Some- 
times it is used of the whole of the country between the Arnon 
and the Yarmuk, which is divided into two halves by the Jabbok 
(Wady Zerka); at other times it is applied to either of these 
halves. Thus, in verse 29 below, ‘the land of Gilead’ denotes 
the country south of the Jabbok, in which were situated all the 
places named in verses 3, 34-37. This is its most frequent appli- 
cation, but in verse 39 (a different source) it must denote the 
country “orth of the Jabbok, 


368 NUMBERS 32. 3-9. P 


3 gregation, saying, Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and 
a Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and »Sebam, and 
4 Nebo, and ¢ Beon, the land which the Lorp smote before 
the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy 
5 servants have cattle. And they said, If we have found 
grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants 
6 for a possession ; bring us not over Jordan. And Moses 
said unto the children of Gad and to the children of 
Reuben, Shall your brethren go to the war, and shall ye 
7 sit here? And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the 
children of Israel from going over into the land which 
8 the Lorp hath given them? Thus did your fathers, when 
9 I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. For 
when, they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw 
the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of 


* In ver. 36, Beth-nimrah. > In ver. 38, Sibmeah’ j 
© In ver. 38, Baal-meon. 






3. Of the nine towns here named, the first four, according to 
verses 34-38, fell to Gad, the remaining five to Reuben. They 
all lay, as has been said, between the Arnon and the Jabbok. Of 
the former Moabite cities here named, several are mentioned in 
the inscription of King Mesha (circa 860 B.C. )» 

Ataroth, the modern ‘Attarus, in a line with the mouth of 
the Wady Zerka Ma‘in, of which Mesha records : ‘the men of Gad 
occupied the land of Ataroth from of old,’ &c. (line 10). 

Dibon, the modern Dhiban, four miles of 
the Dibon-Gad of xxxiii, 45 f., and the capital of Mesha who 
styles himself ‘the Dibonite’ (1. x £.). sR ihe others the best 
known is Heshhbon, to-day Hesban, the former capital of Sihon 
according to xxi. 25 ff., Deut. i. 4, &c. Mimrah, or Beth-Nimrah 
(36), is the modern Nimrin, on the edge of the Jordan valley. 
Beon, if not a copyist’s slip for Meon, may be an intentional dis- 
figurement of Baal-meon (see on verse 38; ef, Peor and Baal- 
peor), also named Beth-meon (Jer. xlviii. 23) and even Beth- 
meon (Joshua xiii, 17 and Mesha, |. 30), The form Meon 
in the modern Ma‘in south-west of Medeba, which gives isa 
to the Wady Zerka Ma‘in above mentioned. 

8-13 contain a summary of chs. xiii—xiy in their present com- 
posite form, which shows the late origin of this chapter, > 

J 


NUMBERS 32. 10-19. P 369 


Israel, that they should not go into the land which the 


Lorp had given them. And the Lorp’s anger was ro 
kindled in that day, and he sware, saying, Surely none of 11 


the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years 
old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto 
Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they 


have not wholly followed me: save Caleb the son of 12 


Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun: 
because they have wholly followed the Lorp. And the 
Lorp’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made 
them wander to and fro in ‘the wilderness forty years, 
until all the -generation, that had done evil in the sight 
of the Lorp, was consumed. And, behold, ye are risen 
up in your fathers’ stead, an increase of sinful men, to 
augment yet the fierce anger of the Lorp toward Israel. 
For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave 
them in the wilderness; and ye shall destroy all this 
people. And they came near unto him, and said, We 
will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for 
our little ones: but we ourselves will be ready armed to 
go before the children of Israel, until we have brought 
them unto their place: and our little ones shall dwell in 
the fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the land. 


We will not return unto our houses, until the children of 18 


Israel have inherited every man his inheritance. For we 
will not inherit with them on the other side Jordan, and 


14. an inorease: rather, ‘a brood’ of sinful men. 

17. we ourselves will be ready armed, &c.: lit. ‘we will 
arm ourselves (and march) fully equipped at the head of the 
children of Israel’ ; ‘ready’ of A.V. and R.V. represents a common 
military technical term (Exod. xiii. 18; Joshua i. 14, iv. 12, &c.) 
—a letter of which has been dropped in the Hebrew text here— 
meaning originally ‘in companies of fifty,’ then ‘ fully equipped’ 
for a campaign (Meyer, Die Israeliten, p. 501). 

Bb 


19 


370 NUMBERS 32. 20-3, Bo 4 


forward ; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this 
20 side Jordan eastward. And Moses said unto them, Ifye 

will do this thing; if ye will arm yourselves to go before 
21 the Lorp to the war, and every armed man of you will 

pass over Jordan before the Lorn, until he hath driven 
22 out his enemies from before him, and the land be subdued 


before the Lorn: then afterward ye shall return, and be — 
guiltless towards the Lorp, and towards Israel ; and this — 


land shall be unto you for a possession before the Lorp. 
23 But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against 
24 the Lorp: and be sure your sin will find you out. Build 
you cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; 
and do that which hath proceeded out of your mouth. 
25 And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben 


spake unto Moses, saying, Thy servants will do as my — 


26 lord commandeth. Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, 
and all our cattle, shall be there in the cities of Gilead: 

27 but thy servants will pass over, every man that is armed 
for war, before the Lorp to battle, as my lord saith. 

28 So Moses gave charge concerning them to Eleazar the 
priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads 
of the fathers’ Houses of the tribes of the children of 

29 Israel. And Moses said unto them, If the children 
of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you~ 
over Jordan, every man that is armed to battle, before 
the Lorp, and the land shall be subdued before you; 
then ye shall give them the land of Gilead for a posses- 

30 sion: but if they will not pass over with you armed, they — 
shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan. 


31 And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben ! 





28 ff. Moses charges Eleazar, Joshua, the future commander- 
in-chief, and the heads of the various septs (see on i, 2), to see to 
it that Gad and Reuben fulfil the conditions agreed to, 


: 
' 


NUMBERS 32. 32-39. P - 371 


answered, saying, As the Lorp hath said unto thy 
servants, so will we do. We will pass over armed before 32 
the Lorp into the land of Canaan, and the possession of 
our inheritance sha// remain with us beyond Jordan. 
And Moses gave unto them, even to the children of 33 
Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and unto the half 
tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of 
Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og 
king of Bashan, the land, according to the cities thereof 
with zheiy borders, even the cities of the land round 
about. And the children of Gad built Dibon, and 34 
Ataroth, and Aroer; and Atroth-shophan, and Jazer, 35 
and Jogbehah; and Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran : fenced 36 
cities, and folds for sheep. And the children of Reuben 37 
built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kiriathaim ; and Nebo, 38 
and Baal-meon, (their names being changed,) and Sib- 
mah: and gave other names unto the cities which they 
builded. And the children of Machir the son of Manas- 39 


83. An editorial addition, introducing without explanation the 
‘half tribe of Manasseh,’ evidently with a view to the addition of 
verses 39-42 to the lists of the Gadite and Reubenite cities in 
34-38. 

34-36. A list of eight cities rebuilt (so render for ‘built * of the 
text), or restored after the war of conquest, by the tribe of Gad. 
Of the four not mentioned in verse 3, the best known is Aroer, 
probably the modern ‘Ara‘ir, on the north bank of the Arnon, 
almost due south of Dibon. 

37 f. A similar list of cities rebuilt or restored by the Reuben- 
ites. Elealeh is El ‘Al, two miles north of Heshbon ; Kiriathaim 
is mentioned by Mesha (1. 10) between Baal-meon and Ataroth. 
For Nebo (Mesha, |. 14) see on xxvii. 12. 

38. their names being changed: probably a marginal note 
by a reader suggesting that the two preceding place-names should 
not be pronounced as written, in order to avoid naming the two 
heathen deities, the Babylonian Nebo and Baal (cf. the alteration 
of the names Meri-baal and Ish-baal into Mephibosheth and 
Ish-bosheth, for which see Cent. Bible on 2 Sam. ii. 8, iv. 4). 

39-42. An independent fragment from a history of the wars of 


Bb2 


372 NUMBERS 82. 4o—33. 1 PB 


seh went to Gilead, and took it, and dis mstine 
40 Amorites which were therein. And Moses gave 

unto Machir the son of Manasseh ; and he dwelt therein: | 
41 And Jair the son of Manasseh went and took the towns — 
42 thereof, and called them *Havvothjair. And Nobah 

went and took Kenath, and the villages ee and 

called it N obah, after his own name. ‘e “+r 






33 These are the *journeys of the children of. ile . 
* That is, The towns of Jair. > Heb. daughters, 
© Or, stages Pass 


pas» 





the conquest (with the exception of the editorial verse 40), akin 
to Judges i. It tells of the successful raid of three Mana: 3 
clans on the portion of Gilead lying north of the Jabbok. The 
clans were no, doubt previously settled in Western Palestine fone 
the probable actual history of these clans see Ed. Meyer, 
Isvaeliten, &c., 516 ff.; cf. Driver’s art. ‘Manasseh’ in Hastings’s 
DB.). 

oy the towns thereof. . . Havvoth-jair: lit. ‘the tent-villages 
thereof, and called them Jair's tent-villages’ (cf. the editorial — 
insertion based on this passage in Deut. iii. r2). But in Judges x. 
3 ff., these ‘villages ’ are said to have been founded at a later period 
by Jair the Gileadite, one of the ‘ Minor Judges.’ 


(hk) xxxiii. 1-49. An annotated itinerary of the reutesbioks Egypt t 
to the Jordan. 

This elaborate study of the route of the Hebrews from the land. 
of Goshen to the valley of the Jordan contains material drawn 
from all the existing sources of the Pentateuch. It may, there- 
fore, well be ‘the work of a learned Jew of Jerusalem about the 
end of the fifth century s.c.’ (Guthe). Forty-two stations are 
named, including Rameses, the starting-point, a number probably — 
not accidental (cf. Matt. i. 17). Of these no fewer than twenty- — 
two are not named elsewhere in the Pentateuch, while places 
mentioned elsewhere, such as Massah, Meribah, Taberah, and > 
those named in Num. xxi. 12-20, are passed over. Of the former 
class some may have been preserved i in traditions, oral or written, 
which are now lost to us; others may be names of caravan-stations — 
of the writer’s own day. In any case the exceedingly complicated 
problem of the route of the Hebrews, including as its central crwx 


the site of the mountain of legislation, is not greatly i 
a solution by this late attempt to reconcile the variant 


td 


NUMBERS 33. 2-7. P 373 


® when they went forth out of the land of Egypt by their © 
hosts under the hand of Moses and Aaron. And Moses 2 
wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the 
commandment.of the Lorp: and these are their jour- 
neys according to their goings out. And they journeyed 3 
from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of 
the first month; on the morrow after the passover the 
children of Israel went out with an high hand in the 
sight of all the Egyptians, while the Egyptians were 4 
burying all their firstborn, which the Lorp had smitten 
among them: upon their gods also the LorpD executed 
judgements. And the children of Israel journeyed from 5 
Rameses, and pitched in Succoth. And they journeyed 6 
from Succoth, and pitched in Etham, which is in the 
edge of the wilderness, And they journeyed from Etham, 7 


* Or, by which 


of the older sources. For the more or less plausible identifications 
that have been suggested for the places enumerated in this chapter 
—of which not more than ten or twelve can be identified with 
certainty—the student must consult the larger commentaries and 
the dictionaries, also the following recent studies of the route as 
a whole: Guthe, art. ‘ Wiistenwanderungen,’ in Hauck’s PRE%, 
vol. xxi (1908); Lagrange, Rev. Biplique, ix (1900), several 
articles ; Bénhoff, Theol. Stud. u. Krit. xxx (1907), pp. 159-217; 
Weill, Rev. des Etudes Juives, vii (1909), several articles now 
published in book form: Le séjour des Israelites, &c.- See also 
Musil’s map of Arabia Petraea and his three vols. with this title, 

1. These are the journeys: better as margin ‘the stages . 
by which.’ 

2. The latter half of this verse, ‘and these are their journeys 
_ (stages),’ &c., is probably the original continuation of verse 1; the 

first half, in this case, is the addition of an editor who regarded the 
whole Pentateuch, and therefore this chapter, as Mosaic. 

3. from Rameses: Exod. xii. 37. Flinders Petrie (Hyksos 
and Israelite Citizs) claims to have discovered the site at Tell er- 
Retabeh, about twenty miles west of Ismailiyeh. 

5. Succoth, the first stage, Egyptian 7Thuku; for this and 
succeeding stages see the Commentaries on Exodus by Bennett 
(Cent, Brble) and A. H. M‘Neile, 


374 NUMBERS 83. 8-16. P 


and turned back unto Pi-hahiroth, which is before 
8 Baal-zephon: and they pitched before Migdol. And 
they journeyed from before Hahiroth, and passed through 
the midst of the sea into the wilderness: and they went 
three days’ journey in the wilderness of Etham, and 
9 pitched in Marah. And they journeyed from Marah, 
and came unto Elim: and in Elim were twelve springs 
of water, and threescore and ten palm trees ; and they 
ro pitched there. And they journeyed from Elim, and 
11 pitched by the Red Sea. And they journeyed from the 
12 Red Sea, and pitched in the wilderness of Sin. And 
they journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, and pitched 
13 in Dophkah. And they journeyed from Dophkah, and 
14 pitched in Alush. And they journeyed from Alush, and 
pitched in Rephidim, where was no water for the people 
15 to drink. And they journeyed from Rephidim, and 
16 pitched in the wilderness of Sinai. And they journeyed 


8. from before Hahiroth: read, with the Versions, ‘ rca Pi- 
hahiroth,’ 

10f. This encampment by the Gulf of Suez—for this and not the 
Gulf of Akaba (See on xiv. 25) is clearly intended—is not men- 
tioned in Exod. xvi. x (P), where the wilderness of Sin follows 
immediately upon Elim. It is perfectly clear, therefore, that in 
the opinion of the author of this chapter, and probably of his con- 
temporaries, Sinai-Horeb was to be found neither in Midian, east 
of Akaba, nor in the neighbourhood of Kadesh, but somewhere in 
the peninsula of Sinai. It by no means follows that either Sinai 
or Horeb—if the two must be distinguished—was so situated 
according to the earliest traditions (see above, p. 186 f.). . 

12f. Dophkah and Alush are not mentioned elsewhere. There 
is no agreement as to their position. 

14. Rephidim. See Exod. xvii. r, xix. 2 (P), where it is 
located as here, but the identification of it with Massah, and still 
more with Meribah, in Exod. xvii. 7 (JE), suggests that ‘the older 
tradition placed Rephidim at Kadesh (see on xx. 13 above). This 
is one of the arguments for locating the mount of lawgiving in the 
same neighbourhood, or at least for holding that the mires 
marched first in a north-easterly, not a south-easterly direction, 


a NUMBERS 33. 17-32. P 375 


from the wilderness of Sinai, and pitched in Kibroth- 

hattaavah. And they journeyed from Kibroth-hattaavah, !7 
and pitched in Hazeroth. And they journeyed from 18 
Hazeroth, and pitched in Rithmah. And they journeyed 19 
from Rithmah, and pitched in Rimmon-perez. And they 2° 
journeyed from Rimmon-perez, and pitched in Libnah. 

And they journeyed from Libnah, and pitched in Rissah. 21 
And they journeyed from Rissah, and pitched in Kehe- 22 
lathah. And they journeyed from Kehelathah, and 23 
pitched in mount Shepher. And they journeyed from 24 
mount Shepher, and pitched in Haradah. And they 25 
journeyed from Haradah, and pitched in Makheloth. 

And they journeyed from Makheloth, and pitched in 26 
Tahath. And they journeyed from Tahath, and pitched 27 
in Terah. And they journeyed from Terah, and pitched 28 
in Mithkah. And they journeyed from Mithkah, and 29 
pitched in Hashmonah. And they journeyed from 30 
Hashmonah, and pitched in Moseroth. And they jour- 31 
neyed from Moseroth, and pitched in Bene-jaakan. And 32 


16 f. Kibroth-hattaavah ...Hazeroth. See above, xi. 34 f. 
According to P (xii. 16), from Hazeroth the Israelites ‘ pitched 
in the wilderness of Paran,’ which is not mentioned in this 
itinerary. It is probable, however, that the twelve stations of 
verses 18-29, otherwise unknown, were caravan stations in the 
plateau of et-Tih (see on x. 12). 

30-34. The four stations from Moseroth to Jotbathah are to be 
identified with those of Deut. x. 6f., a fragment from an itinerary 
of E (cf. xxi. 12 ff. above). Now since Aaron is said to have died 
at Moserah in Deut. x. 6, while in Num. xx. 22-29 (P) and in 
verse 38 below he dies on Mt. Hor, the next station from Kadesh, 
Ewald suggested that part of this itinerary (36°-41°) had been 
accidentally removed from its original position after Hashmonah 
in 30°. This brings the wilderness of Zin, and with it Kadesh, 
into a more natural position, and makes Moseroth the next station 
to Mt. Hor (see on xx. 22f.). Read in this order: 29, 30%, 36°- 
41%, 305-36, 41-49. The difficulties, however, are not entirely 
removed (for a more radical suggestion see Bénhoff, /oc. cit.). 


376 NUMBERS 33. 33-44.) 


they journeyed from Bene-jaakan, and pitched in Hor- 
33 haggidgad, And they journeyed from Hor-haggidgad, 
34 and pitched in Jotbathah. And they journeyed from 
35 Jotbathah, and pitched in Abronah.. And they journeyed — 
36 from Abronah, and pitched in Ezion-geber. And they | 
journeyed from Ezion-geber, and pitched in the wilder- 
37 ness of Zin (the same is Kadesh), And they journeyed — 
from Kadesh, and pitched in mount Hor, in the edge of 
38 the land of Edom. And Aaron the priest went up into 
mount Hor at the commandment of the Lorp, and died — 
there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel 
were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fifth month, © 
39 on the first day of the month. And Aaron was an hun- 
dred and twenty and three years old when he died in 
40 mount Hor. And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, 
which dwelt in the South in the land of Canaan, heard of - 
41 the coming of the children of Israel. _ And they journeyed 
42 from mount Hor, and pitched in Zalmonah, And they 
43 journeyed from Zalmonah, and pitched in Punon. And — 
44 they journeyed from Punon, and pitched in Oboth. And — 





35. Ezion-geber: then, and for long afterwards, a port at the — 
head of the gulf of Akaba (1 Kings ix. 26) near to Elath (Deut, ii. 
8). For this part of the route see on Xiv, 25, xxi. 4,12 ff. If 
Ewald’s suggestion is accepted, the next station of the itinerary is — 
Zalmonah (41°), and the difficulty of the leap from Ezion-geber to — 
Kadesh is removed. ‘ ( iesinig® 4 

36 f. the wilderness of Zin... Kadesh.., mount Hor. See 
notes on xiii. 3, 21, 26, xx. 22 f.~ Our author here follows P with © 
regard to Aaron’s death, adding the date and hisage. 5 

40. Slightly altered from xx. 1 (JE). a sozolt aan 

42. We are now in the depression of the Arabah, which runs 
up from Akaba to the Dead Sea, for Punon is almost certainly the 
modern Khirbet Fenan, on the eastern side of the Arabah, in 
lat. 30° 36’, as proposed by Lagrange (Rev. Biblique, ix. 284 fi. 
(with sketch), and described by Musil, Arabia Petraea, Il. i. 293 ff. 
(with plan and many views). On the opposite side of the 
was situated 1> te 

43. Oboth, if this is to be identified with “Ain el-Weybeh 


nm 
>. 


a, 


NUMBERS 33. 45-50. P 377 


they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched in Iye-abarim, 
in the border of Moab. And they journeyed from Iyim, 
and pitched in Dibon-gad. And they journeyed from 


_ Dibon-gad, and pitched in. Almon-diblathaim. And they 
_ journeyed from Almon-diblathaim, and pitched in: the 


mountains of Abarim, before Nebo. And they jour- 
neyed from the mountains of Abarim, and pitched in 
the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, And they 


"pitched by Jordan, from Beth-jeshimoth even unto Abel- 


shittim in the plains of Moab. 


And the Lorp spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab 


described by Musil, of. cit., II. ii. 202 ff., as the junction of the 
caravan routes from Petra and Akaba to Gaza. According to the 
itinerary it ought to be further north than Punon, and on the east 
of the Arabah, cf. xxi. 10 ff. 

44. With Iye-abarim or Iyim (Khirbet ‘Ai, see on xxi. rr) 
and Dibon-gad (xxxii. 3), we are within the territory of Moab. 
Almon-diblathaim may be the Beth-diblathaim of Mesha’s 


‘stone (1. 30), and Jer. xlviii. 22. The mountains of Abarim 


are the range of which Mt. Nebo was a prominent peak (cf. 
Xxvii. 12). Beth-jeshimoth and Abel-shittim (cf. xxv. 1) have 
been identified with Suwéme and Kefrén, opposite Jericho, in 
the Jordan valley (see Bartholomew's map). 


(2) xxxili. 50-xxxvi. 13. A group of laws having reference to the 
impending occupation of Canaan. 

The closing section of the Book of Numbers is made up of 
several unrelated legislative enactments; all, however, have as 
their common mof#if the necessity for making provision for the 
approaching occupation of the promised land. In their present 
form these chapters are best ranked with the other secondary 
strata of the priestly legislation (P*), although in some cases a 
considerably older nucleus (H or P#, see below) may confidently 
be detected. 


Xxxiiil, 50-56. An order to expel the inhabitants of Canaan, to 
destroy their idols and demolish their sanctuaries. Peeuliarities 
of style and phraseology suggest that at least the nucleus (51-53) 
may have stood originally in H (the Law of Holiness, see 
pp. 119 ff. above). 

50. For ‘by the Jordan of Jericho’ of the original, see on 
xxii, 1, 


45 
46 
47 
48 


49 


on 
° 


51 by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, Speak unto the ch 


52 into the land of Canaan, then ye shall drive out all the 


5 


34 


w 


—— 


n 







378 NUMBERS 33. 5:—34. 2. P 


of Israel, and say unto them, When ye pass over Jor 


inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all 
their figured s/oves, and destroy all their molten images, 
and demolish all their high places: and ye shall take 
possession of the land, and dwell therein: for unto jal 
have I given the land to possess it. And ye shall inherit 
the land by lot according to your families ; to the more 
ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer thot 
shalt give the less inheritance: wheresoever the lot 
falleth to any man, that shall be his; according to the 
tribes of your fathers shall ye inherit. But if ye will not 
drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; 
then shall those which ye let remain of them be as pricks 
in your eyes, and as thorns in your sides, and they ‘shall 
vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. And it” shall 
come to pass, that as I thought to do unto them, so will 
I do unto you. me . 
And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Comm . 










52. Similar injunctions are found in JE (Exod. xxiii, 24 gift, 
xxxiv. 11-16) and D (Deut. vii. 1-6, xii. 2 f.), but not in Be 
all their figured stones : only here and Lev, xxvi. 1 a, 
which see; see also zbid. verse 30 for the high 
54. Apparently introduced from xxvi. 54 (which see for im- 
proved rendering) to prepare the way for ch. xxxiv. cual 


Ch. xxxiv consists of two parts: (1) the ideal bounduieal 
of the land of promise, west of the Jordan (1-15), and (2) the 
names of ten ‘princes’ of the tribes, appointed to assist Eleazar 
and Joshua in the allotment of the land (16-29). With regard to. 
the first topic, the identification of the various frontiers is full of 
difficulties, more particularly on the north and north-east. A 
considerable ideal element enters into the description, as in the 
parallel case of Ezek. xlvii. 13-20. ‘Here, as in other 
what Ezekiel embodies in his description of the ideal future, Pp 
embodies in his account of the idealized past’ (Gray, Numbers, 
P- 453, Which see for the geographical and other details). 


, 


NUMBERS 34. 3-7. P 379 


- the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come 


into the land of Canaan, (this is the land that shall fall 


’ 


- 


unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan 
according to the borders thereof,) then your south 3 
quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the 
side of Edom, and your south border shall be from the 
end of the Salt Sea eastward: and your border shall turn 4 
about southward of the ascent of Akrabbim, and pass 
along to Zin: and the goings out thereof shall be south- 
ward of Kadesh-barnea ; and it shall go forth to Hazar- 
addar, and pass along to Azmon: and the border shall 5 
turn about from Azmon unto the brook of Egypt, and 
the goings out thereof shall be at the sea. And for the 6 
‘western border, ye shall have the great sea ®and the 
border “hereof: this shall be your west border. And this 7 


* Or, for a border 





3-5. The southern boundary of the promised land, which was 
also that of the tribe of Judah (Joshua xv. 1-4), is to run from the 
southern end of the Dead Sea, ‘the Salt Sea on the east,’ along 
the western frontier of Edom till it reaches a point south of Kadesh- 
barnea (‘Ain Kadis, see p. 263), thence north-westwards to the 
Mediterranean along the lower course of the Wady el-‘Arish. 

3. your south quarter: rather ‘ your south side’ (as often in 
Ezek. xli-xlviii), ‘ your southern boundary-line.’ 

4. the ascent of Akrabbim: lit. ‘of scorpions,’ one of the 
passes—the Nakb es-Safa according to Buhl (Geogr. d. alten 
Paldastina, p. 66)—running down to the Wady el-Fikreh. 

5. unto the brook of Egypt: the Wady el-‘Arish (see the 
maps), which the boundary-line touches at the unidentified Azmon. 

6. the great sea: more frequently, as xiii. 29, simply ‘ the sea,’ 
i.e. the Mediterranean. 


7-9. The number of unidentified places here named (cf. Ezek. 
xlvii. 15-17) renders it impossible to define with certainty the 
line of the northern frontier, as intended by the writer (see 
Gray, in loc.). It is probable, however, that a line drawn from 
the mouth of the Nahr el-Kasimiyeh, six miles north of Tyre, to 
the southern base of Mount Hermon (Buhl, of. ci#., p. 66 f.), may 
be taken as approximately correct, 


380 NUMBERS 34. 8-15. P 





















shall be your north border: from the great sea ye shall 

8 mark out for you mount Hor; from mount Hor ye 
shall mark out unto the entering in of Hamath; and the 

9 goings out of the border shall be at Zedad: and the 
border shall go forth to Ziphron, and the goings ou 
thereof shall be at Hazar-enan; this shall be your north 
to border, And ye shall mark out your east border from 
11 Hazar-enan to Shepham: and the border shall go down 
from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain; and 
the border shall go down, and shall reach unto the *side 

12 of the sea of Chinnereth eastward: and the border shall - 
go down to Jordan, and the goings out thereof shall be 
at the Salt Sea: this shall be your land according to the 

13 borders thereof round about. And Moses commanded 
the children of Israel, saying, This is the land which ye 
shall inherit by lot, which the Lorp hath commanded to 
14 give unto the nine tribes, and to the half tribe: for the 
tribe of the children of Reuben according to their fathers’ 
houses, and the tribe of the children of Gad ‘according 
to their fathers’ houses, have received, and the half tribe 
of Manasseh have received, their inheritance: the two 
tribes and the half tribe have received their inheritance 
beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, toward the 
sunrising. - a 
® Heb. shoulder. Bree fs 


ba 
on 





7. ye shall mark out for you mount Hor. The text is here 
obscure, but we should probably render: ‘from the great séa ye 
shall draw your boundary-line to mount Hor; from mount Hor... 
to the entrance to Hamath’ (for which see on xiii, 21), 

10-12. The northern boundary ends at, and the eastern starts 
from, Hazar-enan, probably near or at Banias, one of the sources" 
of the Jordan at the base of Mt. Hermon; the line then runs 
southwards till it strikes the mountains—the ‘shoulder’ of verse 11 
margin (see Joshua xv. 8, 10f,)—on the east of the sea of Chin- 
nereth (pronounce Kinnereth), i.e. the Lake of Galilee. Chin- 


NUMBERS 34. 16—35.1. P 38x 


_ And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, These are 
the names of the men which shall divide the land unto 
you for inheritance: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the 
son of Nun. And ye shall take one prince of every 
tribe, to divide the land for inheritance. And these are 
the names of the men: of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the 
son of Jephunneh. And of the tribe of the children of 
Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud. Of the tribe 
of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon. And of the 
tribe of the children of Dan a prince, Bukki the son of 
Jogli. Of the children of Joseph: of-the tribe of the 
children of Manasseh a prince, Hanniel the son of 
Ephod: and of the tribe of the children of Ephraim 
a prince, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan. And of the tribe 
of the children of Zebulun a prince, Elizaphan the son 
of Parnach. And of the tribe of the children of Issachar 
a prince, Paltiel the son of Azzan. And of the tribe 
of the children of Asher a prince, Ahihud the son of 
Shelomi. And of the tribe of the children of Naphtali 
a prince, Pedahel the son of Ammihud. These are they 
whom the Lorp commanded to divide the inheritance 
unto the children of Israel in the land of Canaan. 
And the Lorp spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab 


nereth was a town on the shores of the lake (Deut. iii.17 ; Joshua 
xix. 35). The Jordan and the Dead Sea (verse 12) complete the 
eastern boundary of Western Palestine, the home of the nine 
and a half tribes here contemplated. 

16-29. Moses is given the names of the ten princes who are 
to assist Eleazar and Joshua in the future allotment of Western 
Palestine to the nine and a half tribes—Reuben, Gad, and one 
half of Manasseh having been already provided for. The order in 
which the tribes are here named is not genealogical (p. 187 f.) 
but geographical, from south to north, according, roughly speaking, 
to their subsequent positions. 


Ch, xxxv is occupied with two distinct ordinances : (1) 2-8, 
the provision of forty-eight cities, with a portion of land attached 


16 
17 


18 
19 
20 


2I 
22 


23 


28 
a9 


35 


382 NUMBERS 35,24. B : 


. 
2 by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, Command the children 
of Israel, that they give unto the Leyites of the inherit- 
ance of their possession cities to dwell in; and suburbs | 
for the cities round about them shall ye give unto the | 
3 Levites. And the cities shall they have to dwell in ; and 
their suburbs shall be for their cattle, and for hey sub- 
4 stance, and for all their beasts. And the suburbs of the 
cities, which ye shall give unto the Levites, shall be from 
® Or, pasture lands 





to each, for the support of the Levites; and (2) 9-34, the pro- 
vision of six ‘cities of refuge,’ with the promulgation of the’ aa 
of homicide in connexion therewith. The position of these } 
lations in the midst of the later legislation of P*, and the im- 
possibility of assigning the first of the above ordinances to Ps 
(see below), suggest that in its present form the cha is also 
the production of a Jater hand. The main portion (9-20, note 
the concluding formula), however, appears to have 
upon, if it be not an extract from, P8, The concluding nestle 
(30-34), on the other hand, has decided affinity with H. Moore, 
indeed, is of opinion that the whole of 9-34 ‘is founded upon a law 
of homicide and asylum derived from H, or one of the collections 
which served as the sources of H’ (art. ‘Numbers,’ EBzi, iii. 
col. 3,444). : 

1-8. The Levitical cities. This law is in direct conflict with 
one of the fundamental principles of the author of the history 
of Israel’s theocratic institutions (P*), according to which the 
Levites are for ever debarred from acquiring landed property (see 
xviii. 21-24, esp. 23°, and cf. xxvi. 62"),. But it is unnecessary — 
to labour the point that we have here a purely theoretical pro- 
gramme, of whose provisions Jewish history, after as well as 
before the exile, knows nothing, Joshua xxi (P®) notwithstanding. 1 
Cf. the note on p. 164 on the similar ‘ programme’ of the sas 
of Jubilee. 

2. and suburbs: render with margin, ‘pasture lands’ ; ; 
‘suburbs’ comes from the Vulgate ‘et suburbana earum,’ a late 
Latin word for the fields and gardens close to a city. 

4f. The dimensions of the pasture ground are clearly stated 
in verse 5 to be those of a square of which each side is 2,000 
cubits, say 1,000 yards, which means an area of over 200 acres, 
the centre of which is occupied by the city. These data ean be 
reconciled with the provisions of verse 4 only by reducing the 
city and its wall to a single point! 


NUMBERS 35. 5-12. P 383 


the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits round 
about. And ye shall*measure without. the city for the 
east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two 
thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand 
cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the 
city being in the midst. This shall be to them the 


5 


suburbs of the cities. And the cities which ye shall give 6 


unto the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, 
which ye shall give for the manslayer to flee thither: and 
beside them ye shall give forty and two cities. All the 
cities which ye shall give to the Levites shall be forty 
and eight cities: them sia// ye give with their suburbs, 


7 


And concerning the cities which ye shall give of the 8 


possession of the children of Israel, from the many ye 
shall take many ; and from the few ye shall take few: 
every one according to his inheritance which he inheriteth 
shall give of his cities unto the Levites. 


And the Lorp spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto ? 


the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye pass 

over Jordan into the land of Canaan, then ye shall appoint 

you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the man 

slayer which killeth any person * unwittingly may flee 

thither. And the cities shall be unto you for refuge from 
* Or, through error 


6. The acquaintance with the provisions of 9 ff. here displayed 
is probably an indication of the later origin of verses 2-8. 
8. With this principle of distribution cf. xxvi. 54, xxxili, 54. 


9-15. Six cities of refuge, three on either side of the Jordan, 
are to be provided as places of permanent asylum for those who 
have accidentally committed homicide. 

11. ye shall appoint you, &c.: rather ‘ye shall select for 
yourselves suitable cities,’ For unwittingly see on xv. 24 and 
Lev. iv. 2. 

12. for refuge (mzuklat) from the avenger (g0’é/) : add, with 
LXX, ‘of blood.? The term mik/a¢ must correspond very nearly 


10 


It 


12 





384 NUMBERS 35, 13-17. PB 


the avenger ; that the manslayer die not, until he st 
13 before the congregation for judgement. And the cities 
which ye shall give shall be for yow six cities of tefuge. 
14 Ye shall give three cities beyond Jordan, and three cities 
shall ye give in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities 
15 of refuge.’ For the children of Israel, and for the stranger 
and for the sojourner among’ them, shall these six cities 
be for refuge: that every one that killeth any person 
16 “unwittingly may flee thither. But if he smote him with, 
an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a manslayer : 
17 the manslayer shall surely be put to’ death. And if he 
smote him with a stone in the hand, whereby a man may. 
die, and he died, he is a manslayer : the Ee ita ae 


* Or, through error. — |) oa 


1 


to our ‘sanctuary;’ the six cities are to be san pla 
of asylum. For the duties of the goel, or next of in 
connexion, see the writer’s arts. ‘ Goel’ in‘ Jame fiend 
more briefly ‘Kin (Next of)’ in the same editor’s “DB. (1909), 
p. 515. In the days before the reformation of Josiah (621 B.c.), 
every local sanctuary of any note was doubtless a reco 
asylum (cf. 1 Kings i. 56, ii, 28), and in the earliest law-code’ 
it is implied that the manslayer’ may remain there in security 
until his case is investigated (Exod. xxi. 13f.). With the de- 
struction of the local sanctuaries, it became necessary to provide’ 
other places of asylum, as is done by Deut. xix. 1-13, om which 
the present law is based. 

14. The cities are specified in Joshua xx. 't~9 (P*), which records 
the carrying out of this ordinance; cf, Deut. iv. 41-43. While 
the sites of the three on the east of the Jordan are uncertain, those 
on the west are all well-known historical sanctuaries, viz. Hebron, 
Shechem, and Kedesh (the ‘ holy ’ city) of Galilee. — ° 

15. for the stranger (gér) and for the sojourner (Geshad):' | 
see on Lev. xxii. ro. 

16-28, These verses are devoted to an exposition of the law 
of homicide, showing how it is to be distinguished from murder 
(16-23), and laying down the procedure to be followed in the 
case of homicide by misadventure’ (24-29), ‘The fundamental 
distinction is one of intention. Evidence of intention is to be 
sought in (@) the character of the instrument, 16-18 ; (6) the 
previous feelings, or the feelings at the time of the homicide, 
whether friendly or the reverse, 20-23’ (Gray). 


“NUMBERS 35. 18-25. P 385 


surely be put to death. Or if he smote him with a weapon 
of wood in the hand, whereby.a man may die, and he 
died, he is a manslayer: the manslayer shall surely be 
put to death. The avenger of blood shall himself put 
the manslayer to death: when he meeteth him, he shall 
put him to-death. And if he thrust him of hatred, or 
hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died; or in enmity 
smote him with his hand, that he died: he that smote 
him shall surely be put to death; he is a manslayer: the 
avenger of blood shall put the manslayer to death, when 
he meeteth him. But if he thrust him suddenly without 
enmity, or hurled upon him any thing without lying in 
wait, or with any stone, whereby a man may die, seeing 
him not, and cast it upon him, so that he died, and he 
was not his enemy, neither sought his harm: then the 
congregation shall judge between the smiter and the 
avenger of blood according to these judgements: and the 
congregation shall deliver the manslayer out of the hand 
of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore 
him to his city of refuge, whither he was fled: and he 
pee) WON Bad Our :gasiea dyls ost} to Uiasd oot Utaw EO 


19 anticipates the judicial investigation enjoined in 24 if. ; 
similarly in 21°. The manslayer dies by the hand of the goel 
or next of kin. This -is the only survival of the primitive 
Semitic custom of the blood-feud recognized by the developed 
legislation. 

20. if he thrust him: rather, ‘if he push him’; cf. Ezek. 
XXxiv. 21. 

22f. A definition of homicide by misadventure (per infor- 
tunium); ef. Deut. xix. 4 f. 

24. The congregation is always in P the theocratic com- 
munity, and we should have expected a more precise statement 
as to how they are to perform the judicial functions here assigned 
to them We have here, probably, an unconscious betrayal 
‘of the conditions of the writer’s own time, when the post-exilic 
community was confined to Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, and 
a council of élders, the gerousia of the Greek period, managed 
its affairs (cf. G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, ii, 382 ff., 393f.). 


cc 


18 


Deal 


9 


» 


° 


386 NUMBERS 35, 26-32, 2 


shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, 
26 which was. anointed with.the holyoil.' But if the man- 

slayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city 
a7 of refuge, whither, he fleeth ; and the avenger of blood 

find him without, the border of his city of refuge, and the 

avenger of blood slay, the manslayer ;_ “he shall not. be 
28 guilty of blood ; because he should haye remained in his 
city of refuge until the death of the high priest ; butafter 
the death. of the high -priest the manslayer shall return 
into the land of ,his possession. And these’ things shall 
be for a. statute of judgement unto you throughout your 
generations in all your dwellings. _Whoso killeth. any 
person, the manslayer shall be slain at the mouth of 
witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any 
person that he die. Moreover ye shall take no ransom 
for the life of a manslayer, which is guilty of death: but 
he shall surely be put to death. And ye shall take no 
ransom for him that is fled to his city of refuge, that he 

® Or, there shall be no bloodguiltiness for him ~ | 


2 


oO 


° 


3 


_ 


3 


» 


3 





25. until the death of the high priest: who has now taken 
the place of the pre-exilic king as ‘ Yahweh’s anointed.’ If the 
adjective is not a gloss (cf. verse 32, ‘the priest’), we have also 
an indication of a hand other and later than P®, who never em- 
ploys the now familiar title, ‘high’ priest (for Lev. xxi. 10 see 
note there). . 


30-34. The preceding laws, closed by their own subscription 
in verse 29, are supplemented by others, apparently from, or 


{ 


based upon, another source (see introductory note, p. 38a),enacting — 


(1) that no one accused of murder shall be condemned on the 
evidence of a single witness (cf, Deut. xvii. 6, xix, 15), and (2) that 
noone guilty of wilful murder shall be allowed to commute his 
death sentence for a money payment, nor shall the unintentional 
homicide be allowed by this means» to commute his sentence 
of detention in«the city of refuge (for this: ‘ransom’ or wergild 
see Driver, Deuteronomy, p. 234). mul 

32. The idea of the land being polluted by the sins of its 
inhabitants i$ a characteristic thought of H (Ley. xviii. 25). If 


NUMBERS 35.-33—36. 3. P 387 


should come again to dwell in the land, until the death 
of the priest. So ye shall not pollute the land wherein 33 
ye are : for blood, it polluteth the land: and no expiation 
can be made ’for the land: for the blood that is shed 
therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. And thou 34 
shalt not defile the land which ye inhabit, in the midst of 
which I dwell: for I the Lorp dwell in the midst of the 
children of Israel. 


And the heads of the | fathers’ Zouses of the family 36 
of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son 
of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, 
came near, and spake before Moses, and before the 
princes, the heads of the fathers’ Zouses of the children 
of Israel: and they said, The LorpD commanded my 2 
lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children 
of Israel: and my lord was commanded by the Lorp to 
give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his 
daughters. , And if they be married to any of the sons of 3 
the offer tribes of the children: of Israel, then-shall their 


these verses once formed part of H or of its sources (see Moore 
above), ‘the priest’ of verse 32 may be taken in the same sense 
as in Lev, xxi. 10-12 (see notes on p. 142). 


Xxxvi. I-12. \A law requiring heiresses to marry within their 
own tribe, a supplement to xxvii. 1-11. The law there allows 
the daughters of a deceased Jandowner to inherit his property in 
the absence of male issue, a principle which ‘ exposed the tribe 
to the danger that marriage might convey the heiress’ property 
to another tribe. The law in xxxvi provides against this con- 
tingency’ (C-H. Hex. ii. 245). 

1. The question is raised in the: interests of the clan by the 
chiefs of the septs of the clan of Machir, the latter, according to 
Xxxil. 33, having been allotted territory by Moses in northern 
Gilead. This, of course, is merely the usual quasi-historical 
setting with which the traditions: of Hebrew jurisprudence re- 
quired that any amendment of an earlier law should be provided 
(see above, pp: 344, 360): 


Ce, 2 


388 NUMBERS 36. 4-10, PB 


inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of our 
fathers, and shall be added to the inheritance of the 
tribe whereunto they shall belong: so shall it be: taken 
4 away from the lot of our inheritance.» And when the 
jubile of the children of Israel shall be, then shall their 
inheritance be added unto the inheritance of the’ tribe 
whereunto they shall belong: so shall their inheritance 
be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our 
5 fathers. And Moses commanded the children of Israel 
according to the word of the Lorp, saying, The tribe of 
6 the sons of Joseph speaketh right. This is the thing 
which the Lorp doth command concerning the daughters 
of Zelophehad, saying, Let them marry to whom they 
think best ; only to the family of the tribe of their father 
7 shall they marry. So shall no inheritance of the children 
of Israel remove from tribe to tribe: for the children of 
Israel shall cleave every one to the inheritance of the 
8 tribe of his fathers. And every daughter, that possesseth 
an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall 
be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father, 
that the children of Israel may possess every man the 
9 inheritance of his fathers. So shall no inheritance remove 
from one tribe to another tribe; for the tribes of the 
children of Israel shall cleave every one to his own 
1o inheritance. Even as the LorpD commanded Moses, 


4. A mistaken addition of a glossator, who failed to observe 
that the provisions of the law of Jubilee (Lev. xxv. 19 ff.) apply 
only to land sold, not inherited. Moreover this verse does not 
contemplate the restoration of the land to the tribe of Manasseh 
(or Machir), but its more permanent conveyance to the tribe into 
which its owners have married. 

5 ff. Moses admits that ‘the sons of Joseph’ (xxvi. 28-33) have 
a grievance, and enacts that henceforth an heiress, inheriting her 
father’s property, shall marry within her father’s tribe. 


NUMBERS 36. 11-12. P 389 


so did the daughters of Zelophehad: for Mahlah, Tir- rr 


zah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters 
of Zelophehad, were married unto their father’s brothers’ 
sons. They were married into the families of the sons 
of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance 
remained in the tribe of the family of their father. 

These are the commandments and the judgements, 
which the Lorp commanded by the hand of Moses unto 
the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan 
at Jericho. 


11f£ The daughters of Zelophehad—for the names see on 
XXvii. I—accordingly marry their cousins on their father’s side, 
with the result that their ‘inheritance’ remained within the tribe 
of Manasseh. 

13. The subscription to the body of laws comprised in chs. 
xxil-xxxvi (see xxii. 1), or more precisely to the legislation 
of chs. xxvii-xxxvi. Cf. the similar colophon, Lev. xxvii. 34. 


it 


3 


ADDITIONAL NOTES 


A. THe Day or ATONEMENT ~~ 
: 1 sr Youths 

Tue limits assigned to the volumes of this series have been 
considerably, but unavoidably, exceeded by the notes in the pre- 
ceding pages. The writer accordingly finds himself compelled to 
forgo his intention of devoting a special note tova fuller discussion 
of the origin of the expiatory rites associated with the ‘Day of 
Atonement. A brief indication of the line which such a discussion 
should take is all that the exigencies of space will permit, 

No hypothesis as to the origin of the rites in question can be 
regarded as adequate which does not start from a’ Satisfactory 
analysis of the present composite text of Lev. xvi. Of recent 
‘attempts in this direction mention may be made of the analysis 
proposed by Benzinger in Stade’s ZATW. ix (1889), pp. 65-88, 
a summary of which will be found in his article on the ‘ Day of 
Atonement’ in £Bi. i, col. 384. Benzinger’s results were accepted 
in the main by almost all subsequent critical writers and oS 
mentators. In 1907, however, Messel, a young Nor ceeR scholar, 
published in the same Zeitschrift (xxvii. 1-15) an article in which 
the weak points of his predecessor’s results were convincingly 
shown, and a fresh analysis proposed on the lines of an earlier 
suggestion by Stade. That this later attempt to account for the 
peculiar features of Lev. xvi is in all respects satisfactory we 
cannot admit, but there can be little doubt that Messel is right in 
his contention that the original nucleus of the fully developed ritual 
is to be found in verses 5-10, This result we were prepared to 
accept, all the more readily that we had reached a similar con- 
clusion by an entirely different path. 

Coming to Lev. xvi from a study of ch. xiv, in which, as shown 
in the notes, pp. 99 ff., an admittedly antique rite of purification, 
originally complete in itself, has now become a mere preliminary 
to a more elaborate ceremony infused with the theocratic spirit 
of the developed priestly legislation, we were struck by the similar 
phenomenon presented by the present form of the ritual of the 
Day of Atonement. The close resemblance—a point on which 
all are agreed—between the most striking elements in the two 
rites, the transference of uncleanness to a living bird in the one 
case and to a living goat in the other, is further proof that the 
two rituals must have a similar history. 

In the Commentary the suggestion is thrown out that the nucleus 
of the later rite goes back to an antique ceremony of purgation 
which may have been carried out annually or periodically at the 
local sanctuaries under the monarchy. It is true that no trace of 
such a ceremony is to be found in our extant literature. But this 


EO ae 


ADDITIONAL NOTES 391 


does not appear'to be an insuperable objection. Do we not owe 
our knowledge of the antiquity of the institution of the shew- 
bread, for example, to a single incidental reference in the books 
of Samuel'(r Sam. xxi. 4 ff.)? Are we not warranted, moreover, 
in supposing that Ezekiel had some precedent for demanding two 
such purgation ceremonies in the year (Ezek. xlv. 18-20)? And 
when we look beyond the Hebrews tc their Semitic kinsfolk, 
and still further to the nations of classical antiquity, we find ample 
evidence of periodical andsolemn lustration of their sacred places. 
In an annual lustration ceremony, of unknown antiquity, there- 
fore, in-which the uncleanness contracted by the altar and other 
appurtenances of the local sanctuary (cf. Lev. xvi. 18f., 33) was 
transferred to a live goat and sent to the mysterious demon-spirit 
Azazel, we’are inclined to’ discover the origin of the rites of the 
Day of Atonement. A 

In the early period in which it may be supposed that this 
ceremony of purgation took its rise, the conception of uncleanness 
was ‘still almost purely physical (see W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem.?, 
408f.). By the time of the exile, however, the higher ethical 
element had been superadded. Hence, when the older rite— 
discarded, there is little doubt, by the author of P%—was re- 
introduced by the religious authorities, its essential provisions 
were extended from the uncleanness contracted by the sanctuary 
through the ‘transgressions’ of the children of Israel (Lev. xvi. 16; 
cf. note on xv. 31), to these transgressions themselves, ‘ even all 
their sins’ (xvi. 21), ‘Atonement,’ in short, was no longer made 
exclusively ‘ for the holy sanctuary and for the altar,’ but also ‘for 
the priests and for all the people of the assembly’ (verse 33). 


B. BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Tue following is a selection from the more important recent 
books bearing on the study of Leviticus and Numbers, apart from 
Kittel’s indispensable Biblia Hebraica, Dictionary articles, and the 
standard works on the history and the religion of the Hebrews. 

(a) Introduction. 

J. E. Carpenter and G. Harrorp-Batterssy. The Hexa- 
teuch according to the Revised Version, 2 vols. 1900. Vol..i 
reissued 1902 as The Composition of the Hexateuch. 

S. R. Driver. An Introduction to the Literature of the Old 
Testament, 8th ed. 1gog. 

C. Cornitt. Introduction io the Canonical Books of the Old 
Testament, 1907. = 

Asr. Kuenen. Zhe Hexateuch, etc., 1886. 

H. Horzincer. Ejnleitung in d. Hexateuch, 1893. 


392 LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


W. E. Appis. The Documents of the Hexateuch, 2 eed 


B. W. Bacon, The Triple Tradition of the Exodus, 1894. 
C. F. Kent. Israel's Laws and Legal Precedents, Tos 


(6) Commentaries. 


Bruno Baentscu. Leviticus (1900) and Numeri (1903) i in 
Nowack’s Handkommentar sum “Alten Testament, 

Aus. Dittmann. Die Biicher Exodus und Leviticus, 1897 ; ; Die 
Biicher Numeri, etc., 1886. 

H. L. Strack. ;. Genesis-Vumeri india Kuragef. Kommentar. 

A. Bertuocer.. | Leviticus; 1901,' in Manis Kurzer Hand. 
kommentar. 

H. Houzincer.. Numeri, 1903, in the same series. 

G. BucHanan Gray. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary 
on Numbers, 1903, in Clark’s Intern, Cnitical Series, 
See also the translation and notes in Die Heilige Schrift 

des Alten Teslamente, ed, E. Kautzscn, 3rd a. ge" 


(c) General. 


Jur. Weituausen. Prolegomena aur Geschichte Isracts, 
6th ed. 1905. Eng. Transl. by J. S. Black, 1885. : 
W. R. Situ. Lectures on the Religion of the Semites, new sen 

1907. 
M. J. Lacrance. | Ziudes sur les Religions Sémiliques. 
W. R. Harper. The Priestly Element in the Old Testament 
(with exhaustive bibliographical lists). 
Ep. Meyer. Die Israeliten und thre Nachbarstimme, 1906. 
S. A. Coox. The Laws of Moses and the Code of Ham- 


murabi, 1903. 


C. THE Map oF THE SINAI PENINSULA 


THe map which accompanies this volume, indicating the 
probable (?) route of the children of Israel,’ is that prepared for 
another volume of this series. It errs in confining the land of 
Edom to the east of the Arabah (see note on Num. xx. 16), and in 
placing Mount Hor there. Of the alternative sites proposed for 
Kadesh, that untouched by the red line (= “Ain Kadis, p. 263) is 
inuch the more probable. But in fact there are not sufficient data 
for determining the exact route of the Hebrews from Egypt to 


Canaan. ’ 
: 


ee 


INDEX 


Aaron, death of, 306, 375; ex- 
clusion from Canaan, 301-3. 
Abstinence from wine, 78, 221. 
Adaptations in the ritual, roo, 
11g, 215, 277, 301. 

Afflict the soul, 118, 359. 

Altar of burnt-offering, 49, 75, 
115; of incense, 30, 49, 77, 209. 

Amalekites, 264, 320, 332f. 

Amorites, 264, 312 ff. 

Anak, Anakim, 262. 

Anointing of priests, 29, 48. 

Aram (=Edom), 323. 

Ark as guide, 246. 

Atone, atonement, 51 f., 90, 113, 
115, 236, 275, 285, 366. 

Atonement, ope. of, 10-8, 155, 
354, 390f. 

Avenger of blood, 383-6. 

Azazel, 100, 113, "116. 


Balaam and Balak, 18, 315-34. 

Ballad-singers, 313. 

Ban, 181, 292; see Curse. 

Blessing, priestly, 76, 224 f. 

Blood, as medium of atonement, 
123; how applied, 53 (see 
Sprinkle); forbidden as food, 
46, 67, t22f. 

Booths (Tabernacles), Feast of, 
156, 348f., 354. 

Boundaries of promised land, 
378-80. 

Brazen serpent, 308. 

Bread of God, 141. 

Burnt-offering, 38, 60, 147, 275; 
ritual, 38-41, 60f. ; see Altar. 


Caleb, 258 ff. 
Calendar of feasts, 


347-57- 


149-58, 


Camp, arrangement, 194-8, its 
significance, 194 f. 

Canaanites, 264. 

Caul (upon the liver), 45. 

Census, first, 186 ff.; second, 
337 ff. 

Chemosh, 314. 

Childbirth, uncleanness of, 89 f. 

Clean, cleanness, 81-110, 251 ; 
clean and unclean animals, 
82-8. 

Cloud (theophanic), 239, 252, 
256. 

Confession of sin, 56, 116, 176. 

Contagion of holiness and un- 
cleanness, 61, 63, 85, 115, 288, 
go2. 

Convocation, a holy, 150, 354. 

Covenant of salt, 293. 

Curse, 55, 218, 318; see Ban. 


D, Deuteronomic Code, Deutero- 
nomy, 14. 

Death penalty, 138. 

Devoted, see Ban. 

Divination and sorcery, for- 
bidden, 133 f. : 

Dress, prohibition as to, 132; 
see Priests. 

Drink-offering, 223, 271-3, 350- 
6. 

Dues, sacred, 58, 64, 68, 290- 
5; see Priests’ Tithe. 


E, Ephraimite Document, 15 ff. 

Edom, 305, 317, 332. 

Elders appointed, 250. 

Eleazar, 284, 307, 347, 363, 379; 
378, 381. 

Ephah (a measure), 57, Tor, 
135, 272, 350: 


394 


Familiar spirit, 135. 
Fat, forbidden as food, 46, 67. 
Fathers’ house, 187, 286. 


Feasts, calendar of, 149-58, 
347-57- : 

Firstborn, firstlings, 149, 181, 
201, 292f. 


aeeear 43f., 292; Feast of, 


Forbidden degrees, 124-9,136-9. 
Forgiveness, 52 f. 

Freewill offering, 65, 147. 
Fringes, 276 f. 


Gad, cities of, 368, 371. 

gér, see Stranger. 

Gilead, 367. 

Goel, next of kin, 1663. sce 
Avenger. 

Guilt-offering, 56 f., 63, 101. 


H, Holiness Code, or Law of 
"Holiness, explained, 25; IIo. 

Hair, customs relating to, 220, 
223. 

Hamath, entering in of, 26a. 

Heave-offering, 65, 214, 273, 
291, 364. 

Hebron, founding of, 262, 

Heshbon, 313-5, 368. 

High places, 174, 322. 

Hin (a measure), 135, 272,'350. 

Hittites, 264. 

Hobab, 245. 

Holiness, holy, 62f., 79; and 
passim; ‘holy’ and ‘most 
holy’ things, 42, 58, 145, 291 ; 
see Contagion, 

Holiness Code, 25-8, 119-77. 

Holy water, 216. 

Homer (a measure), 179, 254. 

Hor, mount, 306, 375,380. 


Incense, see Altar. 


phehad. 





LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


Itinerary of Hebrews, 372-7; — 
cf. 304 f. 


J, Judaean Document, 15 ff. 

Jealousy (of Yahweh), 336; — 
ordeal of, 214-9. 

Joshua, 25815 23820 37% os; 
381; changed, 
successor of aap s hang ; 

Jubilee, year of, oon 

Jus talionis, 161, : 


Kadesh, 258ff., gor-6 and 
passim ; sO apts 263. 


Kenites, 246, .333- : 
hipper, meaning of, sth see 
Atone. rape 


Kittim, 333. 

Korah (Dathan aaa Abiiam: 
278-86, 338, 345. A 

Laying on of hands, 39 


Legal fictions, 344, Bs 
Leper, leprosy, So 257; 
of garments, 97 f.; of h house, 
104 f. ~ 
Levi, choice of, 286-9. 
Levirate marriage, 127, + 
Levites, origin of, > 
age, 206, 237; dedication, 
232-7; duties, 194, 199-212, 
289 ; number of, 202-5, a1rf., 
343.5. their support, 290-5. 
Levitical cities, 381-3. 
Leviticus, title explained, 4, 4e 
Log (a measure), Tor. logf 


Manasseh,. clahs and tities of, 
367, 371f. ' 

Manna, 249. __ 

Marriage, bars to, 124-9, 136-9; a 
levirate, 127. 


Meal-offering, 38, 61, 1545 ritual 
of, 41-44, 61f., 271-3. 


| Memorial (sacrificial term), 4ly 
Inheritance, laws of; see Zelo- | 


160, 216; 
366. 


= reminder, 242,, 





Mercy-seat, 114. 

Meribah = Kadesh, 263, 3038, 
307; 346. 

aaa 245, 317, 334f, 337, 


360 
Miriam, a leper, 257 f.; death, 


302. 
Moab, 310 ff., 318, &c. 
Molech, 136 f. 
Morrow after the Sabbath, 1 53. 
Moses, as intercessor, 248 ; 
prophet, 256 ; exclusion from 
Canaan, 301-3. 
Mourning customs, 134, 141. 


Nazirite, 219-24. 

Negeb (south-land), 261, 307. 

New Moon, 351. 

New Year, 151, 155, 164, 353- 

Numbers, title explained, 4 ;— 
(of the Hebrews), unhistori- 
cal, 189 ff. ; see Census. 


Oath of purgation, 217. 

Oblation (Zorban), 38. 

Oboth, 309, 376. 

Offerings, table of public, 347- 
57> €SP. 349; see Sacrifices, 

Og, 315. 


P, Priests’ Code, 14, 20-31. 

Ps, groundwork of P and of the 
Pentateuch, 20 ff.; charac- 
teristics of, 21-4, 49 f., 74 f., 
79, 120 f., 166. 

Pb—H, 25. 

leas secondary elements in P, 
marks of, 29 f., and passim. 

Pt, independent collections of 
t6roth, 29. 

Paran, wilderness of, 244, 260. 

Passover, I5I, 237. 

Peace-offering, 44, 64, 67f., 
272; ritual of, 44-6, 64-6. 

Phinehas, 335, 360; priesthood 
of, 336. 


395 


Piacular -sacrifices, 46ff.; 57 ff., 
&e. 

Priests, distinguished from Le- 
vites, 199 f.; their consecra- 
tion, 70, 74, 307; see) also 
Anointing; dress, 70, 112, 
I17; revenues, 68, 290, also 
Dues, Tithes; disqualification 
for priesthood, 143f.; claims 
to priesthood, 279-86. 

Prophecy, conception of, 252, 
255 ff. 

Punon, 376, 

Purification, laws of, 81-110; 
see also Clean, Unclean, Red 
Heifer. 


Quails, 253. 


R, Redactor, or So aS of the 
’Pentateuch ; R¥, R®, RR, 
denote the ‘redactors of the 
severa! sources. 

Red Heifer, aiaPtoe 

Red Sea, 268, 374. ° © 

Redemption of property, 166f. ; 
see Slaves, 

Refuge, cities of, 383. 

Reuben, cities of, 368, 371. 


Sabbath, 118, 150f., 163, 276, 


35I- 
Sabbatical Year, 162-6. 
Sacrifice, manual of, 37-60, cf. 

140 ff.; material of, 36, 147; 

purpose, 35ff., 51 ff.; types 

of, 36; ritual of, 36; see under 
the separate offerings, Burnt- 

offering, &c. 

Salt, 43 ; see Covenant. 
Shekel (gold), 366 ; of the sanc- 

tuary, 58, 178, 203. 
Shewbread, 159, 208. 

Sihon, 312-5. 
Sin, see Atonement, Forgive- 
ness, Aipper, Sacrifice, Sin- 


396 


offering, Uncleannéss, Un- 
witting. 

Sin-offering, 475 48, 63, 71, 80, 
274, 293, 298, and often; 
ritual of, 46-59, 274 f. ; grades 
of, 47 ff. 

Sinai, 186 f., 243, 374. 

Slaves, redemption of, 168. 

Spies, sent from Kadesh, 258- 


4. 
Sprinkle, different meanings of, 
oe ee 
Standard = (military) division, 
195; 244. 

Strange (fire), 77; stranger = 
layman, 146, 194. 

Stranger (gér), x22, 135, 273. 

Suburbs, 382. 

Sun-images, 175. 

Survivals in ritual, 100, 113, 
215, 277, 301. 

Sweet savour, 40, 272. 


Tabernacle, charge and trans- 
port of, 203-11; position in 
camp, 194 ff., 251 ; see Tent of 
Meeting. 

Taboos, 62, 67, 79, 82, 84 f., 123, 
133, 220, 284. 

Tamid, explained, 60 f., 348-51. 

Tent of Meeting, 38, 111, 203, 
281 f., 297. 

Testimony (= Decalogue, then 
Ark), 114, 193, 240, 287. 

Thank-offering, 65, 130, 149; 
se¢ Peace-offering. 


LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS 


nett r 


‘ 


Tithes, 181, 294f. 

Trespass, 58; see Guilt 

Trumpets (silver), a4; ees 
of, 155, 353; see New 





Uncleanness, laws of, 81-110; 
from the dead, 87, 141, 284, 
296-301, 36a f.; see Clean, ; 

Unleavened Cakes, Feast of, 
151, 352 

Un-sin, un-sin-ment, 48, 51, 
234, 298. 

Urim, 347. 

Usury, 168. 


Veil (of Tabernacle), 49, 111, 
204, 289. 

Votive offering, Vow, 65, 147, 
177-81, 357-60 ; , Nazirite. 


Wars of the Lorp, Book of, I9, 
gio. 

Water of bitterness, 217; of ex- 
piation, 234; of separation (= 
for impurity), 298, 363. 

Wave, explained, 68; wave 
breast, 68; wave offering, 68, 
Tot, 291, 235 f.5 wave sheaf, 
151. 

Weeks, Feast of, 154, 353. 


Zelophehad’s daughters, 344, 


387-9. 
Zin, wildrated of, 261, go2, 
375- F 





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